


Once Upon A Gilmore

by Ultra



Series: Once Upon A Gilmore [1]
Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Beauty and the Beast Elements, Books, Cinderella Elements, Costume Parties & Masquerades, Curse Breaking, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Falling In Love, Frozen (2013) References, Kissing, Magic, Magic Mirrors, Princes & Princesses, Quests, Sleeping Beauty Elements, Spells & Enchantments, True Love, True Love's Kiss, Witch Curses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-20 14:43:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14896505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Hartford, there lived a princess named Lorelai Victoria, who gave birth to a daughter, named Lorelai Leigh. Their lives should have been perfect and happy, but a witch with a vendetta against the royal family threatened to ruin everything with her dark curses. Perhaps two poor but true-hearted heroes could help to save them?





	1. Prologue

In her private bed chamber, the princess cried. It had become the usual state of Princess Lorelai, to feel pain and sadness, but today it was most especially true. Such days were usually called a happy event, but the young princess knew she had more reasons to cry than to smile.

“Lorelai?” said Queen Emily from the door.

Her daughter gave no answer, just continued to stare out of the window from her place in the bed. Tear tracks were visible on Lorelai’s face as the queen approached, but Emily did not question it, and neither did King Richard. Their daughter had been through quite the ordeal, but to their minds at least, it was worth it.

“Oh, my dear!” said the king, looking down into the cradle by the bed. “Lorelai, she is quite beautiful.”

“I expected nothing less,” said Emily, smiling widely at the infant.

Lorelai still said nothing. Throughout her pregnancy she had lived in fear of herself, what she was capable of, and what might become of her baby. Now the labour was over, the child born, and the even harder task was to come.

“Lorelai?” her father prompted her to answer him.

Though she turned to look at her parents, still she said nothing, one silent tear streaking down her pale cheek. It took a couple of deep breaths before she found her voice.

“I have to go,” she said at last, watching twin frowns appear on the king and queen’s faces, and yet she pressed on. “You know I don’t have a choice. For as long as I was carrying her, I needed to be here, but now... I have to go away.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Lorelai!” Emily snapped. “I know the situation is not ideal. Certainly your father and I would have preferred you were wed before you thought of children, and that you were a good deal older than sixteen, but that is no reason for your exile...”

“You know that’s not the reason!” cried Lorelai in frustration, more tears running unchecked from her eyes. “And you can look away and play ignorant all you want, but we all know it’s not safe for me to be here. She’s not safe as long as I’m here.”

“She is your daughter, Lorelai,” said Richard, eyes following her gaze to the cradle. “She will need her mother, especially in the absence of that rapscallion who is her father.”

“It’s not Christopher’s fault that he couldn’t handle the idea of marrying a monster,” she said coldly, looking away.

It ought to hurt more that her parents didn’t deny what she was, but Lorelai would only argue if they tried. She knew very well what she was, what she had become. It wasn’t her fault, but the fact remained she was dangerous and could not raise a child herself. She dare not even remain in the castle anymore.

“And where exactly are you planning to go?” asked Emily, without looking at her daughter.

“I’ve thought about it a lot,” Lorelai admitted. “The old castle, on the border of the kingdoms. Between the haunted rumours and its isolated location, nobody would even know I was there, and those that did would not venture too close out of fear,” she explained. “I could go there, away from everyone, not able to hurt anyone. Especially not her,” she said, looking fondly at her child who slept soundly yet.

Emily looked at Richard and he looked back at her. She had a point, but then Lorelai often did. Calling herself a monster, it was painful to hear, but her curse did make her dangerous, and now there was a baby to think about.

“I’m so sorry, Lorelai,” said her father sadly. “This whole situation could have been avoided if...”

“If what, Dad?” she asked him, shaking her head. “If you married the woman chosen for you instead of the one you chose for yourself? No, I would never want you to have done that,” she said definitely, reaching a hand to his arm but retracting it fast before ever making contact - sometimes she forgot that she must not touch, not anymore. “But I have to think about my baby now, and about the two of you. If I go, it’ll be easier,” she explained, even as her voice cracked and tears she didn’t know she had left fell in waves. “Tell people I ran away or that... that I didn’t survive the birth. It won’t matter. In time, they’ll forget, and she can grow up happy and loved, not having to fear me. I couldn’t handle her looking at me with fear in her eyes,” she sobbed. “Just please, do one thing for me? I’d like her to be named after me. I’d like to know she has something of mine. The least I can do is give her my name.”

Emily was doing her best to remain regal even in such a moment, but it proved impossible. She could hardly speak as she looked at her heartbroken daughter then, wishing she could hold her, knowing she could not.

“Very well,” she promised. “We will name the child Lorelai, after you, but surely you could stay...”

“No, Mom!” Lorelai insisted crossly. “I can’t. You know that I can’t.”

“But Lorelai...”

“No!”

On the final yell, Lorelai’s hand came up of its own volition, firing a rain of ice at the opposite wall. The mirror there smashed to pieces, shards falling to the floor as the wall all around turned white with frost and ice. The loud noise woke the baby in the cradle and she cried out of fear and shock.

Lorelai cried too, hating herself for what she had done, for all she was capable of. She turned over in the bed, hiding her head under the pillow and crying like her heart was breaking. In truth, it really was.

“Take her away!” she cried aloud. “Please, get her away from me. I don’t want her near me. I don’t want to hurt her!”

King Richard and Queen Emily got up to leave, knowing there was no other choice. Emily scooped the baby up into her arms and made for the door, her husband at her heels. At the last, he turned back to the form of his sobbing daughter in the bed.

“I’ll make arrangements,” he told her, “regarding the old castle.”

The next moment he was gone and Lorelai could no longer hold in her rage and pain. Sitting up in the bed, her arms shot violently out in front of her and then to the sides, filling the room with icy shards and a swirling blizzard that engulfed everything. After long minutes of screaming and raging, her cursed hands fell limply to the bed in front of her. Lorelai looked at them with loathing and then around the destroyed bedroom, full of sharp dangerous icicles and drifts of snow. It was the right decision to go, to be away from those she loved most. Their lives would go on very well without her, and God willing, little Lorelai would grow up healthy, strong, and beautiful inside and out.

“Please,” she said to the Heavens. “Please protect her from that witch. Don’t let her return in another sixteen years and do to my baby what she did to me. Please!”

She began crying again when her prayer was done and fell to the bed sobbing loudly.

By the same time tomorrow, the elder Princess Lorelai would be gone from her home, exiled by her own wishes to another castle where she would be forgotten. The new Princess Lorelai would grow up without her, protected from the cruel outside world, but most of all, from her own mother.


	2. Chapter 1

Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Hartford, there lived a beautiful princess named Lorelai Leigh. To her grandparents, the king and queen, who had raised her to be a kind and intelligent young lady, she was affectionately known as Rory.

Rory did not know her mother and namesake. She had one photograph of Princess Lorelai Victoria, which she had worn in a locket around her neck for as long as she could remember, but Rory knew very little about the woman who had brought her into the world. Asking her grandparents got her the same stock answers every time, that her mother had gone away because she had things she needed to deal with, that she just wasn’t in a position to raise a child. Rory often thought she should resent her mother for abandoning her. Sometimes in fits of rage, she did feel something akin to anger and hate rise within her, but it never lasted long. Rory firmly believed that if her mother could be with her then she would, and if she couldn’t, there had to be a very good reason. In either case, Rory planned to find out the truth someday soon.

It was barely a week now until the young princess turned sixteen and on the auspicious occasion of her birthday, Rory officially became an adult within the kingdom of Hartford, and would be formally presented to her public at a grand ball. It was as terrifying as it was exciting. Just being amongst so many people was going to be quite the experience, Rory was sure. She went to limited parties and social gatherings up to now and had been educated within Gilmore Castle. She rarely went beyond the grounds and never unaccompanied. It didn’t bother Rory so much when she was younger, but as she grew up, she longed for adventure, for freedom from her gilded cage.

“Rory!”

Emily’s voice echoed down the hall way in something very close to being undignified. The queen must be really mad, Rory knew, to be quite so loud. Glancing up from her book, Rory started at the sight of the clock. She was due for a dress fitting fifteen minutes ago and was now officially late. Pushing the marker into her book, she leapt up from the attic floor and dusted off her dress.

“Coming, Grandma!” she called as she hurried down the ladder.

No sooner had her feet touched the carpet than Rory realised the queen had caught up to her, and she was none too amused by where she had found her. Again.

“Rory, I really don’t understand you sometimes,” her grandmother told her snippily. “Your grandfather has gifted you with no less than two libraries full of books, plus your own room has enough reading material to last any ordinary person a year at least. So why is it that when I cannot find you, it is because you are in that dusty, smelly attic searching out yet more books?”

“I found a new collection up there that I never saw before,” explained Rory, tucking her hair back behind her ear. “Well, not actually new, obviously. I’m pretty sure they’re very old, but they’re so interesting, like nothing I ever read before.”

As Emily’s features twisted towards suspicion, Rory changed tack. She would do better not to fully explain about the books she found up in the attic, knowing for sure that her grandmother would think them unsuitable and take them away from her. She was practically sixteen and quite old enough to read whatever she wanted to, but Rory had trouble getting her grandparents to understand that. Sometimes it was just easier not to tell them everything.

“Is it time for my dress fitting? I’m so excited about the ball,” she enthused then, glad to see Emily smile widely.

“A lady really shouldn’t be excited about such a thing as a ball,” she said anyway. “Though of all events, I’m sure a sixteenth birthday should be a happy occasion.”

Her happy expression slipped just a little at her own words, but she recovered so quickly that Rory almost thought she imagined it.

“And yes, Miss Selene is here for your final fitting. Lord knows I would’ve had her come a little sooner than two days before the day of the ball, but then what do I know?” she sighed, rolling her eyes. “Come along then, let us get this dress properly fitted.”

Rory grinned and followed Emily down the stairs, hiding the book that had been behind her back this whole time, in a gap between the bannister rails. She would pick it up later when no-one was around and already couldn’t wait to read more adventures of the characters who believed in standing up for what they believed in, seeing the world, and experiencing all of human emotion, most especially love and all it entailed.

On the way down, Emily spoke of the ball, reminding Rory to be her best lady-like self, especially when meeting dukes and princes, all the eligible sons of the surroundings kingdoms and counties. Rory wasn’t exactly dreading meeting these young men who might want to court her, though she was a little nervous. She really didn’t meet that many people, especially not of the male variety, unless they were of a much older generation, friends of her grandfather, for example.

Rory’s hand went subconsciously to the locket at her throat as they reached the bottom of the stairs and Emily and Selene greeted each other warmly.

“Wish me luck, Mom,” she urged the picture hanging around her neck.  
“Good luck, baby,” said Lorelai with a sad smile.

In the magic mirror, the image of Rory flickered slightly and then began to fade. Most of the time it was easier not to look, but sometimes Lorelai just couldn’t help herself. She had not seen her baby girl in the flesh since the day of her birth, only pictures through the glass of the mystical mirror in her own out-of-the-way castle. It was sweet torture to see her, knowing Rory had no idea she was being watched, knowing she would never look back at Lorelai, never mind meet her, but it was how it had to be.

King Richard and Queen Emily had raised Rory to be a good girl, kind and loving, as beautiful inside as she was on the outside. Lorelai was sure she could not have done a better job, even without her curse. Now Rory was turning sixteen. In two days’ time, she would have her ball, and on the stroke of midnight would truly be classed as a woman in the kingdom of Hartford. Then the true test would come.

It had been in Lorelai’s sixteenth year that her curse had been placed upon her. The concern now was that Rory would suffer the same fate. The witch who held the Gilmore family in her evil sights had not been seen in the kingdom since the day she sealed Lorelai’s fate, and yet the gnawing worry of her return existed inside of Lorelai, and was evident upon Emily’s face when she spied on her and Rory.

Only the youngest princess had no idea what might befall her. All Lorelai could do was pray that it did not come to pass. That Old Woman Lott would stay away and let bygones be bygones at last. It seemed unlikely. Her pain over losing her betrothed had darkened her heart so much, it was thought that her thirst for vengeance might never be sated. It was why Lorelai had planned never to fall pregnant, but the unruly son of a nearby duke had been just too charming. She was carrying Christopher’s child before she turned sixteen, and though he had vowed to marry her then, everything changed when the witch returned to Hartford and cursed Princess Lorelai with icy powers. From that day on, the slightest fluctuation in her mood send forth spirals of snow and ice from Lorelai’s hands. She dare not touch a single living being or allow them too close for fear of harming them. She certainly did not trust herself to raise a child in her cursed state.

Turning away from the mirror altogether, Lorelai could not bear to torture herself with another look at Rory. A knock on the door got her attention and her eyes flitted to the clock on the mantle. Barely a minute after noon, her lunch was right on time.

“Thank you,” she called to the servant beyond the door.

Lorelai waited until she heard footsteps going away down the stairs before she ever moved closer to the door. She counted beyond the footfalls she could hear, to be certain the servant had made it down every one of the fifty steps that separated her from the nearest person. Then she rose and went to the door, retrieving the food quickly and bolting the door behind her. A small smile curved her lips as she examined the tray. There was little to please her in her solitary life, but food had become something she enjoyed, especially in the last few years. The old chef who lived in the castle had died several years ago, and a new man was employed from the small town of Stars Hollow. He was a wonder, creating simple but succulent dishes, the like of which Lorelai had never experienced at home in the palace when she were younger. No pheasant or suckling pig or caviar were to be found here, but instead, meat patties in the most delicious bread, piles of fluffy pancakes with the most exquisite honey were brought for h  
er, coffee the like of which she had never tasted before, and she delighted in the flavours.

It had become usual for Lorelai to leave notes for the servant, thanking him for the delicious food, letting him know which dishes were her favourites, and that his coffee was a magical elixir to her, cheering her up on even the worst of days. He never wrote back, but answered through the food, sending more of things she loved, variants on dishes she had made particular comments on, that kind of thing, and always all the coffee she could want. Though Lorelai had never met this servant who cooked her delicious meals, she thought of him as a friend, and delighted in each and every plate of food and cup of coffee he brought. His visits to her door were a bright warm spot in her desolate cold life.

Lorelai's thoughts turned to melancholy then, eyes drifting to the mirror as she thought of Rory preparing for her ball. Sixteen. The years seemed to have passed too quickly and too slowly in equal measure. Watching her daughter grow up was as much pleasure as it was pain, and Lorelai now must live in fear for up to twelve months, worrying what curse may yet be placed upon her daughter. All she could do was wait and watch, with no chance of helping Rory or even being a shoulder to cry on if the worst should happen.

The food that had been piping hot began to rapidly cool on the plate before her. Lorelai gripped the fork tighter and frost grew down the handle from her fingertips. The frustration of losing control only made matters worse. In a fit of rage, she picked up the whole tray and threw it at the door, a shower of ice crystals following it down to the ground.

Beyond the door, Luke jumped back at the sound of shattering china and splintering wood. The only thing worse than the almighty crash was the sobbing that came after. It broke his heart to hear the poor woman cry. Though Luke never met her and was not even certain of her name, the rumour was she had been a princess, banished from her kingdom for reasons nobody knew or at least never spoke of. She might be beautiful, she might be kind and sweet. The opposite could also be true, and yet Luke would not believe it.

When she started leaving him notes that made him smile, Luke realised that at the very least the woman behind the barred door had a sense of humour, that she liked his food, and adored his coffee. He never could find the right words to reply to her, but he made sure to take her comments into consideration with the food he made and delivered to her. Often he would sit re-reading all those notes he carefully kept, and Luke often wondered why this woman was so alone, why she was kept behind closed doors this way. More than once he considered answering when she called her thanks for a meal left for her. He considered trying to open the door and go in, get a look at the mysterious creature never seen and barely heard. He had never dared yet, but today he had decided to see what he could see or hear beyond the forbidden door. He walked half way down the stairs, sure after so many trips here that his lady waited the exact amount of time she knew the whole staircase took to descend. At the half way point, Luke turned and headed back up again, as softly as he could, and then hid around the corner to wait. He caught but the briefest glimpse of beautiful dark hair and delicate hands before she was gone again.

The moment the door closed, Luke approached and listened a moment. He heard the cutlery taken up from the tray, the general sounds of eating and then nothing. Just when Luke was about to turn to go, the crashing and crying began. It tore at the heart Luke often claimed he did not own. A lonely bachelor such as he was considered by many to be grumpy and unpleasant much of the time in the town where he lived, but Luke had a heart, and by now he was sure that though he had never seen or really met the woman beyond the door, that heart belonged to her. Right now he would have given anything to bring comfort to the desolate maiden beyond the door, but he could do nothing. Nothing at all.


	3. Chapter 2

Luke was sat at the table, sifting through the old notes from his mysterious employer. It was two days now since he stood by the door and listened to her cry. Pointlessly, he read and re-read her messages, hoping to find some way to cheer her up, to figure out who she might be, but no amount of clues added up to any of the right answers. Luke was growing frustrated with the situation and with himself, when his nephew arrived home. It was getting dark outside already, getting late, Luke presumed, though they had no clock to let them know. Luke and Jess both rose with the dawn to put in as full a days work as possible. Jess’ days seemed to be getting longer all the time.

“You look exhausted,” said Luke pointlessly as his nephew all but collapsed into the chair opposite him at the table.

“If it were possible to sleep standing up, pretty sure I would’ve already,” he declared, eyes closing of their own volition even as he said it.

Luke sighed and shook his head, rising to fetch a plate of food for Jess. It was useful being as good a cook as Luke was. He was not always paid handsomely for his efforts in cash, but leftover ingredients were often granted to him by the richer folks that he worked for. Jess ate well, and that was no bad thing. He was worked into the ground by Taylor Doose, the town mayor, and for very little money.

“Thanks,” said Jess with as much of a smile as he could manage when the food arrived before him on the table.

“You’re welcome,” said Luke, returning the look.

Watching Jess fall on the food, eating like his life depended on it, that was painful for Luke. His nephew deserved better than this life he had, and this was just about as good as life could get for a guy like him. Abandoned by his father, Jimmy had skipped out with several of the town’s treasures barely a day after Jess was born. Luke’s sister Liz was Jess’ mother, but never really earned the title. She became known throughout the town for being eager to please with too many other women’s hubands and was eventually banished. It had taken a lot of persuading on Luke’s side for Jess to be allowed to stay in Stars Hollow, and he had gone on to do his very best by his nephew. It often didn’t feel like enough. In order to stay, Jess had to work for the town, under the mayor who took full advantage of the abandoned boy who must work hard for scraps and a pittance in cash. Jess rarely complained, at least not out loud. He lived his down-trodden life mostly in silence, losing himself in fiction whenever he could, just to keep from going crazy.

“What is all that?” he asked Luke then, gesturing with his fork towards the papers on the table.

It took Luke a moment to realise there had been a question posed, so distracted was he by his own thoughts. His eyes focused then, first on Jess, then on the pages spread between them.

“Oh, this? This is... Um, messages from the lady at the castle on the hill,” he admitted, not willing or able to say more, because it would be impossible to explain.

“The crazy ghost lady?” asked Jess with a hint of a smirk that he couldn’t help.

Luke shot him a look. “She is not crazy and she is not a ghost. This stupid place has more rumours flying around it than any place else in the world.”

“Maybe,” Jess agreed, polishing off his dinner in record time. “But you gotta admit, there’s something weird about that place, and about the woman that lives there. Think about it, nobody ever sees her, nobody knows where she came from, who she is, or what her deal is.”

“Honestly? I think she’s lonely and hurting,” said Luke, knowing too much what that was like, as Jess did too. “I just... Okay, so maybe she is some banished evil-doer, but somehow I can’t believe it. She seems... nice.”

“Nice?” asked Jess, picking up the nearest piece of the paper and reading it. “Based on her fancy penmanship and the fact she said she liked your food?”

“No.” Luke rolled his eyes. “There’s more to it than that. It’s just... It’s a feeling, okay? Like an instinct. You’re too young to understand.”

“Oh, I’m too young,” said Jess with a look and an eye roll for good measure. “I’m almost eighteen years old, Uncle Luke.”

“Age has very little to do with it,” muttered Luke as he gathered up the papers from the table and moved to put them away.

Jess knew his uncle had a point. There was very little point to being older. Jess still knew little of life beyond Stars Hollow, at least nothing real. He read a lot of books, a rare skill for a peasant boy but his uncle had always been determined Jess be educated so he might better himself in life. Unfortunately, for as long as he stayed in town, Jess had a reputation for being the barely legitimate son of trouble makers. No decent person would employ him, only Mayor Doose, who took great delight in keeping the down-trodden boy at his heel, using him for only the worst jobs and paying him as little as possible.

“I’m sorry, Jess,” said Luke as he returned to the table. “I know you’re doing your best, and... and I want so much more for you than this. One day, we’ll get enough money together, and...”

“And what?” asked Jess sourly. “You can’t leave this place, and even if I could afford to, where the hell would I go? There may be a big wide world out there, Uncle Luke, but it’s meant for the people with money and power. I can’t imagine what their lives are like, and I’m never gonna find out. No man is ever going to hire me to any decent kind of job, and no woman is ever going to look at me as a man. I’m the bastard son of a thief and a whore, and it’s all I’ll ever be.”

He pushed his chair back from the table and stormed from the room, slamming the door as he went. Luke called after him, but never expected Jess to respond. There was no point chasing after him either. The kid was growing up alright, but the transition to a man was hard and only made harder by knowing the future held nothing more than harder work and more grief.

Outside, Jess yelled out his anger and frustration at the night sky. He hated this. Hated this life that he had been born to, the people who sneered at him for reasons he had no control over, that thought he was nothing more than dirt to be stepped over. To think that by an accident of birth this was his lot in life, whilst other men of his age were waking up in palaces and castles, privileged and elite. They were probably not half so smart nor as inventive as Jess, wasting the resources and opportunities at their disposal. It made him sick.

Jess kicked out at a nearby pail, sending it flying, then sank down to sit on a crate with his face in his hands. He wasn't one to cry, though sometimes he felt like it. Frustration bubbled over inside and it was all he could do to keep from coming apart at the seams with it all. Losing himself in fiction was how he coped, imagining himself far away, in another world where everything was different, where all people were equal. He had a decent home with a loving family there, he fell in love with a woman who felt the same way about him. She was beautiful and intelligent, the kind of person that only existed in dreams, but when dreams were all a person had, it really didn’t matter.

It might have been an hour or maybe two that Jess sat outside, reading by the light of the street lamp and pale moonlight. Uncle Luke said he would ruin his eyes and ought to get more sleep, but losing himself in a novel like this was Jess’ only escape, his only way to cope with real life. Half a dozen pages from the back of the book, a sound caught his attention. Jess glanced left and right but saw nothing, so went back to reading. No more than a paragraph later, he heard it again. A strange sound, almost ringing but not loud enough to be an actual bell. It was the noise a shimmering star might make, if such a thing had a sound. It was the only way Jess could think to describe it, and then he saw it.

There was a star, twinkling in the sky, shifting slightly as if it had come lose from whatever usually held it in place. Jess let the book drop from his hand as he blinked hard twice. Still the star seemed to move, left and right and left again, before slowly growing larger, coming closer. Jess instantly leaned back, falling ungracefully over the crate and onto the ground with a crash. There was laughter ringing in his ears as he tried to right himself, cursing under his breath. Only when he was back on his feet did Jess know why.

“Well, I had hoped you’d be a little more graceful,” said the woman stood before him now. “But we can work on that. There’s very little that magic can’t do,” she told him with a smile.

Jess didn’t know what to think as he looked at her. The face was vaguely familiar, and yet his eyes were drawn elsewhere. The large woman was wearing the most ridiculously shimmering, glittering dress, with a crown on her head and a silver stick in her hand. As she moved she seemed to twinkle like the shooting star in the sky. Jess shook his head.

“No,” he said sceptically. “No, you didn’t... You’re not...”

“Your fairy godmother?” asked the woman with a wide grin. “That’s exactly what I am, honey. What? You didn’t think that young men got their wishes granted just the same as young women? Well now, what kind of world do you think you’re living in?”

“A crappy one,” Jess automatically replied.

The apparent fairy godmother laughed heartily. “I can see why you’d think so, but Jess, honey, your life is about to change, at least for tonight. I am Mistress Patty, Fairy Godmother to the poor and downtrodden, and I heard the wish beating in your heart tonight. It’s been there a while, we both know that, but this is the night when I can make it come true.”

“You want to make my wish come true?” asked Jess, still not quite sure he believed this was happening. “Which one?”

“How about all of them?” she replied with a wide smile. “Of course, magic does have some limitations. Everything does, and it’s a real drag let me tell you, but we’ll see what we can do here...”

Mistress Patty started to walk up and down in the small yard area, though somehow her feet barely seemed to touch the muddy ground. Jess was hypnotised by the way she moved, floating and shimmering like the star still. His fingers pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache coming on. This was insane. He had to have hit his head or had too much to drink, but there was no bump on his head and he didn’t remember any wine passing his lips tonight.

“Y’know you’re much more handsome when you’re not looking at me like you never saw a fairy before,” said Mistress Patty, hands on her hips as she stared at him.

“Sorry,” said Jess absently. “But honestly? I never did. See a fairy, I mean. I’m not a hundred percent that I’m seeing one now. I mean, this is a dream, right? Not that I mind. As dreams go, I’ve had worse than some woman wanting to make my wishes come true but still...”

“Oh, honey,” said Mistress Patty with a sigh. “You’ve really had it bad, but we can fix that. I see all that your heart desires,” she told him with a smile, tapping his chest with her wand. “And tonight, we’ll see what we can do about getting it for you.”

Jess opened his mouth to ask what she meant but never got the chance. His feet seemed to go out from under him. It was as if he was flailing five feet off the ground, and the scene around him grew hazier by the second. Maybe it was all a dream and this was him waking, but Jess never felt like this before, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it. He lost track of time, of space, of everything, until at last he felt the world come back into focus around him. Jess' feet touched down on the ground and his so-called Fairy Godmother appeared to be gone.

“What the...?” he began to say to no-one in particular, but the question went unasked as Jess looked down at his own hand and the card that he held in it.

An invitation to a Royal Masque Ball, that was what he had in his hand, and as Jess’ eyes travelled up his arm and down to his own body, he realised he was properly dressed for the occasion too. Even the smartest businessmen in town never wore such a suit as this. It was the smartest thing Jess ever saw in his life.

“Sir?” said a voice, and Jess turned quickly to find a man bowing to him. “Shall we go?” he asked, opening up the back door of a car and gesturing for him to get in.

There was a chauffeur in the gleaming black vehicle, waiting to drive him to the ball. Jess didn’t know what to think, but he did know what to do.

“Thanks, er... Thank you,” he amended, trying to play the part he seemed to have been cast in tonight.

Climbing into the car, he sat stunned a moment, re-reading the invitation in his hand. A masque ball. His hand went to his face and he felt a mask across his eyes. Wherever this ball was, whoever he might meet, they would not know him. He could be a nobleman, a duke, a prince, but he assumed only for tonight. Such an assumption was proven true when the car suddenly halted, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The driver turned in his seat to face Jess, looking solemn.

“We have not yet arrived, sir,” he confirmed. “But I feel I must inform you, I shall be back to collect you from the ball at midnight.”

“Midnight?” Jess echoed.

“Indeed, sir. We must be no later than midnight.”

The way he said it proved it had to do with the spell, the magic, whatever Mistress Patty had done. All this ended at midnight, a mere four hours from now. Jess felt the car begin to move again and couldn’t care about the limitations of his situation. If this was a dream, a fantasy, a magic spell that must break before the stroke of twelve, then so be it. He would take what he could get for as long as it lasted. It was all he could do.


	4. Chapter 3

“And the gifts have been checked?”

“Double-checked, ma’am,” the maid promised the queen faithfully. “There were no signs of anything disturbing - poisons, spells, talismans, no magic whatsoever. We’re in the process of rewrapping the last of them now.”

“Well, don’t stand there talking, you foolish woman!” Emily snapped. “The princess is never to know this was done. She is to know nothing of the threat, do you understand me?”

“Yes, your majesty.”

The maid bobbed another curtsey and hurried away, biting her lip so she wouldn’t cry. After a month in the queen’s employ, she still had not learnt to deal with her harsh manners. The other maids had told her the queen was always quite severe, and yet this last few weeks were worse. The ball to mark Princess Lorelai Leigh’s sixteenth birthday was a very big and lavish affair, and seemed to be a source of constant panic to the queen. It was not as if the staff didn’t have their rumours as to why, but they never spoke of it to the royals themselves.

“Emily?” said Richard, approaching the moment the maid was gone and finding his wife looking fit for tears. “My dear, are you quite well?”

“I shall be, Richard,” she promised him. “I only wish we could be certain that Rory was safe.”

“Now, come along, Emily,” he urged her, a comforting hand at her shoulder. “You know that witch hasn’t been seen in more than sixteen years.”

“I know that, Richard, but... but after what happened to our Lorelai,” said Emily, a terrible shake in her voice that she just couldn’t control. “I wonder if this ball is such a good idea. I wanted Rory to have a special night, her own coming out into society, but with the threat of that wretched old witch...”

“I know,” said Richard softly, pulling her closer in his arms, “but it will all be well, you’ll see. It is a masque ball, so no-one will even be sure of who exactly Rory is. As coming out balls go, it is the most discreet we can be and still have Rory meet all the eligible men in the country,” he explained. “Should we have the good fortune for her to become engaged to such a man, he should be able to offer some protection at least. All will be well, Emily, you’ll see,” he repeated.

“I do hope you’re right, Richard,” she sighed, allowing herself to be held in comfort a while longer.

“It still hurts my heart to think this is all my doing,” her husband said sadly. “That a sweet girl like Lynnie could turn into such a... a heartless witch!”

“We can’t change the past, but I pray God we can change the future,” said Emily, pulling back to look at him. “If Rory has to suffer like her mother, I’ll never forgive myself.”

“Grandma? Grandpa?”

Neither king nor queen had noticed Rory’s approach until she spoke to them. Immediately Emily, moved out of Richards arms, discreetly wiping her eyes so no tears showed. She painted on a smile as Richard spoke to their granddaughter first.

“Rory, my dear. Are you all ready for your party?”

“I think so,” she said with a bright smile. “My dress looks wonderful and Carlotta has been helping me with my hair and make up. I just came down to ask, which mask do you think I should wear?” she asked, showing her grandparents the choices.

Emily looked them over, both in exquisite taste with white lace and crystals in two different designs. “This one I think,” she said at last, choosing the one that would cover more of Rory’s pretty face from view.

“Very becoming,” said Richard with a nod of agreement as Rory held the mask across her eyes and looked into the nearest glass.

“It will match your dress and your tiara beautifully,” said Emily, peering into the mirror from over her granddaughter’s shoulder.

Rory smiled wider. “I still can’t believe it. A real live ball and all for me!”

“Well, you are a princess, Rory, and practically sixteen years old,” her grandma reminded her. “A young woman in your position must begin to be seen in society.”

“I guess so,” she agreed, though she wasn’t altogether certain she was ready for this yet. “Well, I should go finish getting ready,” she declared, sparing a moment to kiss both grandparents on the cheek before heading back upstairs.

She was excited for the ball, but Rory had her reservations. A hundred questions ran around in her head. What if the men don’t like me? What if I trip and fall in my high heeled shoes? What is some prince should try to kiss me? Rory’s heart beat faster at the very idea of being courted by a young man, her mind spinning with scenes from novels that had made her blush on first reading, novels her grandmother would burn on sight if she ever discovered them in Rory’s possession.

“One thing at a time,” she said to herself, pushing open the door to her room where the maid waited to assist her.

* * *

Jess hardly knew what to make of the castle he was brought to. The party was in full swing when he arrived, and though he wore a mask and was dressed for the occasion, he felt a terrible urge to run away. Jess didn’t do scared, at least he would always tell anyone who asked that he didn’t. The truth was, the rich could be awfully intimidating to someone like him. He wondered at first why he ever wished to be in a place like this, then he saw the buffet table laid out with more food than he had ever seen together in one place before.

“Well, if nothing else comes out of tonight...” he said to himself heading for the food.

Jess helped himself to a large glass of wine and filled a plate with delicious looking delicacies. People milled around him, tall gentlemen and elegant ladies, though he barely saw most of them. He concentrated on trying to eat as much as he could without looking like a pig, and drinking the alcohol that never failed to keep out the cold.

It was only when the dancing began that his attention was taken from the buffet table. The crowd of onlookers applauded politely as couples made their way onto the floor. Jess watched with some amusement and then distaste. He hoped to God he wasn’t expected to dance. It was certainly not his idea of fun, not least because he would have no idea where to begin in keeping up with the steps. Now seemed like a good time for a sharp exit. This wasn’t the place for a guy like Jess, and though he was sure Mistress Patty had meant well sending him here like this, he couldn’t help thinking she had miscalculated.

Pressing through the crowd, Jess opened up a door and headed through, sure it must be an exit. He got a real surprise when he looked up into shelves full of books, leather-bound and just begging to be touched, read, experienced. A low whistle escaped his lips as Jess closed the door behind himself and took in the scene. Maybe he could stay a while longer.

* * *

“You dance beautifully, m’lady,” said the gentleman with his arms around Rory. “You have the grace of a princess.”

His eyes sparkled pretty and blue when he said it. Rory was sure he wasn’t just making an off the cuff remark and had identified her, even through the mask, though she was unsure how.

“You have the advantage, sir,” she told him with an uncertain smile. “You seem to know who I am, but I’m not so sure about you.”

Twirling her out of his arms, the stranger kept a hold of Rory’s hand and raised it to his lips. 

“Sir Forester, Duke of Chicago,” he told her with flourish, bringing her back into his arms. “But you may call me Dean if I can call you Lorelai?”

“Nobody calls me that” she told him with a slight shake of her head, before thinking better of her confession. “But you may,” she conceded.

Somehow she didn’t want him calling her Rory. Only her grandparents and one or two of the staff were privileged to use such a name. Rory hardly thought Dean Forester had earnt the right after half an awkward dance.

“I knew it was you” he told her with a grin too wide for his face. “Even through a mask, it’s clear you’re the prettiest girl in the room.”

“Thank you,” said Rory, knowing she was blushing a furious red, and feeling ten times more embarrassed when she suddenly stepped on Dean’s toe. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he assured her. “I’m not the world’s greatest dancer myself. The waltz is just about all I’ve successfully mastered, and that’s only because it’s so slow.”

“Apparently, I can’t even manage that tonight,” said Rory, with a hint of laughter in her voice.

Quite honestly, she was not much enjoying her grand ball so far. The other women and girls turned up their nose at her, speaking in faked polite tones when they must, but for the most part ignoring her. Rory could only presume it was jealousy of her status that made them so bitter, or belief in her own snobbery that she actually had none of. As to the men, some were simply too attentive, and Rory found interest in not one of them. Dean was the third to ask her to dance and the first she had accepted, since the others had not appealed in the least. Now she was finding her dance partner was barely more experienced in leading than she was in following, and smiled just a little too much. There was no skip to Rory’s heartbeat when he held her, and no excitement in his conversation. It was a relief when the dance was over and Rory could escape.

“Please, excuse me,” she said, quickly pulling from his arms before he could protest.

Rory took the shortest route she could find to the library door and pushed her way inside, checking nobody was watching as she did so. A sigh of relief came from her lips when she realised she had made it to some sanctuary, but that relief was short-lived. Rory physically jumped at the sight of movement across the room, a figure rising from her favourite chair by the fireplace.

“Who are you? What are you doing in here?” she asked, backing up against the door.

Jess was startled at the interruption, but when he got up and turned to see who was there, he was too overcome to speak. The intruder was beautiful. It was obvious even through the mask. She had the most captivating blue eyes, they had him hypnotised from even ten feet away. Jess cleared his throat at last and finally found words to say.

“I was... I’m not really a party person,” he explained. “Honestly? Kind of needed a place to hide.”

Rory nodded her agreement, as if she well understood Jess’ plight. Then her eyes landed on the book in his hand and suddenly she was rushing towards him like a woman possessed.

“That’s my favourite!” she exclaimed happily. “Do you like it?”

“Er, yeah,” Jess nodded. “I’ve read it about forty times, so my copy is a little worn.”

As he spoke, Jess thumbed the much more crisp pages of this superior book, not realising what he was revealing until Rory’s eyes grew comically wide.

“What have you done?” she asked, tearing the book from his hands.

Jess bit his lip. He knew when he started that he was doing wrong, but somehow the urge was just irresistable. The margins of the pages were so large and clean, just itching to be filled, and Jess had so many opinions, a lot more than was good for him, Luke always said.

“I’m sorry,” he apologised on instinct, only now realising that only the owner of the book could surely be so affronted. “Is it... Is this your library?”

Rory looked up sharply. Dean had guessed her identity and now it seemed this stranger had too, though she had no idea who he might be. Now that she really looked, she could see he was handsome, even through the mask that covered the upper part of his face. Dark eyes, almost black as the mask, stared out at her, intense enough to send a shiver through her entire body. Rory realised almost too late that she had forgotten to breathe and forced in a large breath so she could speak.

“You... Who are you?”

“A guest at the ball,” said Jess, shifting slightly, eyes darting away a moment.

“An officially evasive guest,” replied Rory with a smile she couldn’t help.

“Well, it is a masque. Isn’t the point that we don’t know who anybody else is?” tried Jess, smirking at his own words, hoping she took them lightly and let the topic of identity disappear from the conversation.

Rory was too intrigued to let go yet.

“Most men at this ball are asking me to dance, not hiding in the library defacing my books,” she noted.

Jess smirked all the more, and shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m not most men.”

Rory blushed from just the way he was staring at her, from the tone in his voice and the pictures in her head that it conjured. Her eyes went to the book in her hands because somehow that seemed safer, until she read some more of the words Jess had written on the pages.

“This is so weird,” she commented, fingers running over Jess’ scribbling. “I thought exactly this when I was reading, and this too,” she said of a second comment further down the page.

“Great minds think alike, I guess,” he said, closer now than before.

Rory swallowed hard when she looked up and found Jess right in front of her, his fingers brushing hers as he slid the book from her hands. He flipped the pages to show how his notes ran throughout the text.

“It’s all pencil markings. It’ll come right off, if you don’t want to-”

“No,” she cut him off, reaching to steal back the book before he had a chance to even finish his suggestion. “Please, I... I want to read more of your thoughts,” she told him, only noticing when he suddenly looked down that her hand was completely over his rather than grasping the book as intended.

Something was happening here, something neither Rory nor Jess could explain. Their eyes met in the next moment, and it was clear they were both feeling the same thing, a connection, an electricity that could surely only mean one thing.

“This is crazy,” said Jess, knowing it was true. “I don’t even know your name.”

“I don’t know yours either,” replied Rory, hardly breathing as they moved even closer together. “But, I just...”

The door came flying open and Rory turned sharply to see who was there.

“Grandma!” she exclaimed at the sight of the queen. “I, er... I’m sorry, I was...”

Rory turned back to look at Jess but he was no longer there. The book they had been discussing lie alone on the table, and the room appeared empty. The curtains at the far window fluttered, the only evidence that anybody else had ever been there at all.

“Rory, sweetheart, I know you’re not used to being the centre of attention at such an event and that you do love your books, but really, the whole point of tonight is for you to meet people,” said the queen, ushering her granddaughter back out to the ball room.

“I know, Grandma, and I was,” insisted Rory. “I’ve met people.”

“Well, here is one you have yet to meet but that is very keen to dance with you,” she said, gesturing for a handsome blond in a mostly translucent mask to come forward.

He bowed perfectly and smiled in such a way that made Rory smile too, though she couldn’t really say why.

“Princess, it is a pleasure to finally meet you,” he said, practically emanating charm and style from every part of his being. “I am Prince Logan of Huntzberger, and I would be honoured if you would dance with me?”

He had to be someone important for her to be introduced by her title, Rory knew. Now Logan had declared himself a prince, Rory understood why her grandmother was so keen for them to meet. She remembered almost too late that she had yet to answer Logan’s question.

“I... Yes, I would. I mean, I will dance with you,” she said at last, laughing nervously. “I’m sorry, but I should probably warn you, I’m not the best dancer.”

“Then allow me to be your patient tutor and trusted leader,” said Logan, taking Rory by the hand and pulling her effortlessly into the correct hold. “And please,” he whispered, now sure the queen would not hear, “don’t be nervous. Of all the people in this room that wish to fall at your feet, all I want to do is spend a few minutes in your company. I’m here for a good time, Princess, nothing more scary or sinister than that, okay?”

“Okay,” said Rory happily. “Though you really don’t have to keep calling me Princess.”

“You prefer Lorelai?” he checked, with a winning smile, surprised to see her shake her head. “Well, then maybe I can come up with my own name for you. Such a singular young woman as yourself, it ought to be something equally unique.”

Rory was amused by his thinking aloud about what best to call her. He passed by names that were also rare items, such as Ruby and Pearl. He declared others too ridiculous, namely Diamond and Tanzanite. Then finally he landed on something he found to be reasonable and appropriate.

“How about Ace?”

“Ace?” she echoed.

“Sure. Aces are rare, and the best card in a hand” he explained. “Plus the word actually means one, and who knows? You could be the one I’ve been looking for, Ace.”

Rory laughed lightly at what she assumed was a joke, ducking her head because keeping eye contact with Logan was just a little too much right now. He seemed so charming and sweet, and so far they had been dancing for fully five minutes without her once tripping on her own feet or stepping on his toes.

“You can call me Ace, if you really want to,” she confirmed then.

“Thank you, Princess,” he whispered, tipping her a wink when she met his eyes.

“So long as you’re not expecting me to call you by some other name,” she said bravely then. “I think Prince Charming is already taken.”

At that, Logan laughed, and then spun Rory out of his arms and back again like a pro.

“Now, you think we can keep this up for another song?” he asked. “Or do you want to take a break and see if we can’t escape the general hubbub for a while?”

“Escape sounds good,” she said with a grin.

Logan took Rory’s arm and led her out onto the veranda where she was glad to go. Still she couldn’t help but steal a glance back at the library door, wondering where her mysterious stranger had gone to. Logan was good company, there was no doubt about that, but Rory would rather be with him still, whoever he was.


	5. Chapter 4

The ball had been amazing. Rory went to bed still dreaming of dancing and laughing, of being amongst company, but mostly unknown. Logan was very charming and sweet, not to mention attractive, though it was the stranger Rory met in the library that had her most intrigued. As she woke to sunlight in her eyes, she was smiling thanks to her last dream, and blushing at the same time, because of the kiss she had imagined between herself and the man who would talk to her of books rather than trying to court her like the others. She liked that. Not that Rory was all that good at imagining what such a kiss would be like. Up to now, she had never actually been kissed, not that way. Of course, that was likely to change eventually.

Rory turned over in her bed and opened her eyes. She screamed.

“She wakes!” said the old woman leaning over the bed with a cackle of evil laughter. “For now, at least. How sweet it might have been to end you whilst you slumbered, and yet, my plans for you are so much more... exquisite!” she said, eyes glittering with dark power.

Rory backed up fast against the headboard, still yelling for help. She had no idea what was happening here, but she knew it was bad. There had been rumours of witches in the kingdom for as long as she could remember, but mostly she paid no mind. Her grandparents always told her such things were pointless nonsense. Now she wasn’t so sure. If anyone was likely to be a witch, it was this woman, Rory thought.

The king and queen burst in a moment later, two guards on their heels with swords drawn.

“Please, Lynny!” Richard appealed to the woman he used to know. “Please, not again!”

“Don’t do this, Lott!” said Emily, more threatening than begging even in such a moment.

The old woman smiled slowly, turning from the royals and their guards to a still quaking Rory in her bed. Her mind did the calculations and then she laughed.

“Could it be that sweet Rory does not know who I am, or what is to befall her?” she asked, fake sugary sweetness in her tone.

“Why would I know you? What is she talking about?” asked Rory, looking from the witch to her grandparents. “What is happening?!” she demanded when no answer came.

“Rory, don’t ask questions, just run!” Emily urged her.

Rory didn’t hesitate in doing as she was told. She dove from the bed, bolted past everyone and was swiftly taken away to apparent safety by the guards. The cackling of the witch rang in her ears as she scurried away.

“Foolish Gilmores,” said the witch, looking between the king and queen who stood firm yet, their arms around each other. “No locks nor bars nor guards can keep me from her. She is now sixteen, and I promised her a gift when she came of age,” she smiled.

“Lynny, this has gone far enough!” Richard snapped at her, watching her expression twist to something far less friendly.

“I shall decide when I have gone far enough!” she told him coldly. “See what you have driven me to, you and your shrew of a queen!” she said nastily, showing him her wrinkled hands, her face tinged with green and ten times more twisted and ugly than she had ever been when Richard knew her in the beginning. “My beauty gone, my grace consumed, my very soul blackened, and all because of what you did to me. You made me look a fool and feel as if I might as well be dead. Now your family will suffer, every generation for as long as I walk this earth!”

Her declaration made, Old Woman Lott swept her dark cloak around her and in a flash of intense light, she disappeared. Richard and Emily shielded their faces from the explosion of sparks, but it was not the only cause of the tears that formed in their eyes. 

“How are we going to protect her, Richard?” asked Emily.

There was a very serious look on the king’s face as he thought it over. He shook his head before finally speaking.

“She will not stop, we know that. She will come back for Rory as she said, but perhaps if she does not find her here...”

His voice trailed away and Emily’s mouth fell open with shock. If she was understanding correctly, Richard was suggesting they send Rory away. Perhaps it would be for her own good, and yet Emily was sure losing Rory just as she lost Lorelai should surely break her heart.

* * *

“Jess! Jess!” yelled Taylor. “Where is that hoodlum?!” he complained, even as the servant boy came running.

“I’m right here,” he said snippily, “sir,” he added off the mayor’s unimpressed expression.

“I will never understand what takes you so long to get here when I call,” Taylor grumbled. “But in any case, now that you are here, I need you outside. My... niece has come to stay with me for a period of time, her bags need bringing into the house from the carriage.”

“Yes, sir.” Jess nodded, feeling sorry for any relation of Taylor.

He headed for the door, following the mayor who rushed out to greet the mysterious niece. As Taylor reached out a hand to help her down from the carriage, Jess could not help but stare. He heard nothing Taylor or his so-called niece said, all he could do was stand there, gaze fixed on a face he had seen before and recently too, and yet it couldn’t be her.

“Jess! Fetch Rory’s bags!”

“Yeah... Er, yes, sir.”

Jess shook his head to clear the fog brought on by the sight of Rory. He was certain that would not be her real name, and even more certain that she was not Taylor’s niece. Sure, the princess at the ball was wearing a mask, but he would know those eyes anywhere. If it wasn’t the same girl then they were twins or doppelgangers. Jess was sure she was the princess, and yet she did not know him. Of course not, he had been wearing a mask too, and she had met so many men that night. He was just a masked face that meant nothing much to a princess, and she had to be royal. He had heard her call the queen ‘grandma’ seconds before he made his escape from the castle, the clock striking midnight in that same moment. Now here was the apparent princess, calling herself Rory and dressing like a commoner. A high end commoner, Jess would admit, much classier than he looked in his rags, but still. Something very weird was going on.

Jess was thinking hard about all of this as he came inside and put Rory’s bags neatly at the bottom of the stairs where she was waiting for Taylor to return from speaking with the carriage driver.

“Thank you,” she told him with a smile that wavered.

“You’re welcome.” Jess nodded. “I, er... Are you okay?” he checked, noticing the tear tracks on her face now he was that much closer.

“Yes,” Rory answered immediately and then faltered. “Um, I just wish I were at home.”

“You didn’t want to come stay with your uncle?” he asked, wondering if he could get her to crack, to give some sign that this was all a ruse, or even perhaps that she recognised him somehow.

“My uncle?” she said, frowning slightly before realisation clearly hit her. “Oh, yes. I don’t have a lot of family. Being away from my grandparents is hard.”

“You don’t have parents?” asked Jess like a reflex, before realising he shouldn’t have. “I’m sorry, none of my business.”

“No, it’s okay” Rory assured him. “I never met either of them. I’m not even sure who my father is, but my mom... She had to go away. I don’t really know why but... Well, this is her.”

Rory’s hands went to the golden chain previously hidden beneath the edge of her dress. Her fingers prised open the locket she wore and she turned it out towards Jess so he could see the picture of her mother. He smiled at the tiny portrait.

“She’s beautiful,” he said, meeting Rory’s eyes then. “You look like her.”

“Thank you,” she mumbled, visibly colouring at the compliment. 

Rory looked down at the photograph of her mom, smile fading immediately. Jess watched the pain cross her face and hated to see it. Words came tumbling out of his mouth unchecked.

“I know what it is to not have parents. I never knew my dad, and my mom is... well, she’s not around anymore either .”

It was like the ball all over again when she looked up and met his eyes. Jess was sure Rory wouldn’t realise who he was, not a chance, and yet there was a moment.

“Jess, get back to work!” Taylor’s voice yelled as he came back into the room, hands on hips and eyes flashing angrily at him. “Now Rory,” he said, turning to her, his whole demeanour changing as he approached her with the kindest smile he could muster. “Can I get you anything?”

“Coffee, please?”

“Coffee?” he echoed, making a face. “Oh, yes, of course. Coffee is your favourite of all drinks! Well, we have plenty,” he told her, taking her by the arm and leading her to the stairs. “Now, don’t you worry about anything. You’re perfectly safe here. Nothing bad can happen...”

He was still rambling away as he picked up the lightest of Rory’s bags and led her up to her room. She was barely listening, attention taken by the young man stood at the bottom of the steps still, looking up at her.

“Maybe I’ll see you around, Jess,” she told him softly as she walked away.

“I hope so, Rory,” he replied, though she could not have heard him.

* * *

“Rory is actually Princess Lorelai Leigh? And you know this because a Fairy Godmother sent you to the royal ball two nights ago?”

Jess wasn’t shocked to see his uncle looking at him like he had two heads. The story he told was outlandish to say the least. If anybody had told him the same tale, Jess was sure he would have been taking them straight to the local asylum. As it was, he knew he spoke the truth, and was hopeful that of all people Uncle Luke might believe him.

“I know how it sounds,” he admitted, continuing to dry each plate and utensil that Luke washed and handed to him. “But it happened, all of it, and now she’s here, calling herself Rory and playing at being the Mayor’s niece. He said something about keeping her safe, so I’m wondering if somebody is making threats, y’know kidnap the princess for ransom or whatever? But it’s definitely her, Luke. Even through the mask, I could see she was beautiful. I’m never forgetting that face, those eyes, and when we talked it was...”

Jess ran out of words to explain, which was strange in and of itself. For a so-called street rat, Jess was a smart boy. If only someone would give him a chance, Luke was sure Jess could do great things. The kid didn’t lie, not to Luke, so all he said about balls and princesses had to be for real, however unlikely it seemed on the surface. Now he was talking of Rory with a light in his eyes that Luke had never seen before in Jess.

“You love her,” he said easily, a statement not a question because it was clear for any fool to see.

Still, Jess scoffed at the very idea.

“I barely know her,” he said, though he couldn’t look at Luke at all.

“That doesn’t always matter,” his uncle told him knowingly.

“I guess we have stuff in common, despite the princess thing,” Jess considered. “She doesn’t have parents, so she said. She never knew her dad, and her mom... I don’t know, she has this picture of her in a locket, but apparently she never sees her. I don’t think they ever met. They look a lot alike. The dark hair and the blue eyes. Anyway, we talked about books at the ball, that was cool. Apart from that, all I really know about her is she loves coffee, and-”

The plate shattered against the tile as it slipped from Luke’s fingers. Jess jumped at the sound, and then could only look concerned for his uncle who had gone incredibly pale in that moment.

“Uncle Luke? Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” said Luke, drying his hands quickly on his apron and grabbing his coat from the chair. “I gotta go check something.”

“Check what?” Jess called after him, completely confused about what the hell was going on here.

“With Mrs Dell and Miss Tilly,” said Luke, shrugging into his coat and throwing off his apron simultaneously as he reached the door.

“The town gossips?”

“Don’t be mistaken, Jess,” his uncle advised, already half way out of the door. “Those old women know everything. If they can confirm what I’m thinking, I may know who and where Rory’s mother is.”


	6. Chapter 5

Luke hovered outside the door for a good ten minutes, unsure how to proceed. He knew he had to do this, and the larger part of him wanted to, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t nervous. Somebody like him was not supposed to approach royalty, and that was what he was about to do. Of course Luke didn’t really have any choice in the circumstances.

“Here goes nothing,” he muttered to himself, before rapping his fist against the door. “Lorelai?” he tried. “Er, your majesty? I’m sorry, I don’t know how to address you. Heck, I’m not even a hundred percent sure you’re the person I think you are,” he admitted, “but if you are, if your name is Lorelai and you have a sixteen year old daughter out here in the world named Rory, then I have some news for you about her,” he explained, wondering if the woman in the next room was even listening. “She’s... she’s in some danger.”

There was an audible gasp beyond the door and Luke reacted immediately.

“Lorelai?” he said loudly, listening hard.

There was a sound like shuffling feet or similar, and then bolts slid away from the door, before finally Luke realised she was actually going to show herself. He hadn’t known he was holding his breath until it blew out of him in a rush. The door came open slowly until finally there she was, Princess Lorelai standing before him.

“Wow,” said Luke without thinking, stunned by her beauty that was greater than he ever imagined. His eyes drifted beyond her face and figure then to the wall beyond that seemed to be caked in ice. “Holy... Okay, this is...” he tried to say, shaking his head in confusion.

Lorelai didn’t say a word, her eyes darting left and right before she finally moved aside and ushered Luke inside. She closed the door behind him and put her back against it.

“How did you know who I was?” she asked, trying not to get distracted by his looks. “No wait, I don’t care, what danger is Rory in?”

“I don’t know exactly,” admitted Luke. “She came to the town, to Stars Hollow. There were rumours, there always are, about her being a princess. From what I heard, she’s hiding out. Some witch is after her or something, I don’t know,” he explained as best he could, shifting awkwardly before the lady and trying not to stare too much at either her or the oddly ice-covered room. “The point is, I think she could use her mother right about now, and maybe you could do with seeing her too?”

“No.” Lorelai shook her head firmly, swallowing hard before she could continue. “She’s better off without me. Stars Hollow is a safe place, full of good people. I remember it well. Rory will be safe there and the danger will go away and everything will be fine.”

She moved from the door back towards the table and chair. Luke reached for her hand as she passed.

“C'mon, Lorelai-”

“Don’t address me by that name!” she snapped, snatching her arm away before he could hardly touch her. “You don’t know me, and you don’t have the right to speak to me like that.”

“Well, maybe I wouldn’t have to if you acted like the princess you were supposed to be, but you’re not,” he told her just as harshly. “You’re acting like a coward.”

Something flashed in her eyes, anger perhaps, but Luke suspected there was magic in her too. Lorelai seemed to lose control in an instant.

“Get out!” she yelled, throwing out her arms.

A strong, ice-cold wind seemed to blow at Luke, sending him reeling. He hit the wall a little too hard and a shower of ice crystals fell down from a point above his head. He fought to catch his breath then looked to his right and up a little to see where the icicles hung too close for comfort to his head. A couple of inches over and he could’ve been killed.

Swallowing hard, Luke looked at Lorelai in time to see her arms fall to her sides and her eyes fill with tears.

“I’m sorry!” she cried. “I’m so sorry. This hateful curse!” she yelled, shaking her fists at her sides.

Luke was overwhelmed by what just happened, but not so much that he couldn’t try to bring some comfort. All that Mrs Dell and Miss Tilly had told him was starting to make a whole lot of sense. It was said that Princess Lorelai had been banished. The story seemed to go that she went crazy and became violent. Now Luke was beginning to realise that maybe the violence was beyond Lorelai’s control if she was cursed as she said. She certainly didn’t seem crazy to him.

“It’s okay,” he promised her, approaching her tentatively. “I’m okay, and you didn’t mean to... did you?” he checked, gesturing vaguely to the icy patch on the wall.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, dragging the back of her hand across her face, eyes to the floor as she explained. “It’s so hard to control, when I get mad or sad or... I am sorry, um...” she stalled on realising she had no idea of his name, though he seemed pretty clear on her own somehow.

“Luke,” he told her with what he hoped came out as a warm smile. “Luke Danes. I, er... I make and deliver your food,” he explained, gesturing towards the tray on the table from this mornings breakfast.

“The cook?” she gasped, eyes suddenly wide and bright, a smile gracing her lips. “Your coffee is amazing!” she enthused.

Luke smile genuinely at her enthusiasm. “Your daughter thinks so too. Well, not my coffee specifically, but it is her favourite thing to drink. She also showed my nephew a picture of her mother, of you. When he mentioned the dark hair and said you and she looked similar, then with the story about Rory never knowing you, it all started to add up.”

The words he spoke, the way he looked at her, it made Lorelai smile too. She couldn’t help it.

“Your food is amazing too,” she told Luke happily. “It’s the highlight of my days.”

“Yeah?” he checked, hoping he wasn’t blushing like a fool at her compliments. “Well your notes are the highlight of mine,” he admitted, taking a step or two closer to her.

Immediately her smile disappeared and she backed up across the room.

“No, please,” she urged him. “Stay back. I don’t want to hurt you again.”

“I don’t think you would.”

“I might. Please!”

“Okay, okay.” Luke placated her by taking a step back and making calming gestures with his hands. “I’ll stay right here, but about Rory...”

“I told you, she’s better off without me, believing I’m dead,” said Lorelai bitterly.

“She doesn’t,” Luke told her, getting her eyes back up from the floor in an instant. “Rory doesn’t think you’re dead, she doesn’t seem to know where you are.”

Lorelai looked baffled by that. She had assumed all this time that her parents told her daughter she was dead. When she looked in on Rory, she had never seen or heard evidence to the contrary, but then maybe she hadn’t paid enough attention when it mattered. Rory didn’t think her mother was dead, but that didn’t matter. Lorelai may be alive, but she was out of bounds to her baby girl.

“You can’t ever tell her I’m here,” she said definitely, meeting Luke’s eyes. “Promise me, Luke.”

“I promise,” he said solemnly, not hesitating for a moment, sure that he would promise her just about anything she ever asked for because he was simply unable to do anything else. “But Lorelai...”

“Now go, please,” she told him, turning away. “I really need to be alone right now.”

Luke didn’t want to leave her, for a hundred reasons, most of which he could probably never explain. For so very long he had wanted to know her better, to see and talk to the mysterious woman beyond the locked door. Now he was here, and he was gaining some understanding of what her life was like and why. He wanted more, but he knew he had no right to ask for that. Besides, Lorelai’s wishes were more important than his own.

“Okay, I’ll go,” he told her, nodding his ascent though she couldn’t see, “but I will be back,” he added even as he opened the door to go.

Lorelai waited until she heard the door close behind Luke before she dare glance that way again. She was glad he was gone, and yet at the same time, she sort of wished he had foguht harder to stay a while. Shaking her head at her own stupid ideas, she grabbed the mirror and waited for the mist to clear so she could see Rory again.

In the picture upon the glass, Rory was smiling and happy. Lorelai traced her daughter’s image with her finger and smiled also, though a tear fell from her eye just the same. She hoped and prayed that Rory’s happiness lasted, that Old Woman Lott really would never find her in Stars Hollow. Hopes and prayers were all Lorelai could offer her daughter right now, she knew that more than ever the moment she almost killed a man who had only come here to help her. Far from the first time in the past few days, Lorelai cried.

* * *

“You’re very kind, Jess. Thank you.” Rory smiled, taking the books he had brought her from the store. “The mayor... I mean, my uncle, he’s a little protective of me. He didn’t want me going to the store myself, and I kind of miss my library back home.”

Jess bit his lip, knowing he couldn’t mention the way they had met two nights ago, their conversation inside the very library Rory spoke of. She couldn’t know he was the stranger at the royal ball, because she would never understand, and Jess could never expect anything from the princess. He would have to settle for being her friend and trying to help protect her from whatever was coming next for just as long as she needed that. Maybe when Luke got back from the castle, they would know more.

“I didn’t know exactly what you’d like so... Well, those are a couple of my favourites,” he explained of the books Rory held in her hands still. “Books are kind of an escape for me.”

“Me too,” she told him with a grin.

“Really?” he checked. “What exactly do you need to escape from?”

Rory didn’t get a chance to answer, and didn’t look entirely as if she would want to if given the chance. Taylor came in yelling for Jess to get his butt in gear and of course he was obliged to do so.

“I’ll see you soon,” he told Rory. “You can tell me how you like the books.”

“I’m already looking forward to it,” she replied, smiling widely.

Jess left then to go and work. Though his mind was on his job as much as necessary, he couldn’t help but think of Rory, to the point where the hours of work slipped by almost as if they were mere minutes.

Darkness had fallen and Taylor was telling him he may as well head home before Jess hardly noticed it was time.

Headed back to his uncle’s house, so lost in thought was Jess, he almost missed somebody speak his name until a hand on his arm made him turn to look.

“Lane,” he greeted her with a smile. “How’re things?”

“Same as always,” she told him, rolling her eyes. “I’m just waiting for my mother. She’s in deep conversation with Pastor Cho so it might be a while.”

Jess nodded that he understood. He and Lane had been good friends since they were children, though Mrs Kim had no idea about their relationship. They were more like brother and sister than anything Lane’s mother might consider sinister, but she would never be okay with even a friendship existing between her only daughter and a male of the species. Jess and Lane spoke only in secret to save her from her mother’s wrath, since Mrs Kim’s Christian values never did extend to any man or boy who so much as glanced at Lane.

“What’s new with you?” she asked Jess with interest. “Mayor Doose still working you into the ground?”

“Pretty much,” he agreed, but the smile on his lips gave away that life wasn’t so bad. “You met his niece yet?”

“We’ve been introduced.” Lane nodded. “She seems nice, a little... I don’t know, she almost seems like she doesn’t want to be here, like she doesn’t fit.”

“Yeah, well. There’s a reason for that,” said Jess softly, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking around to ensure nobody was paying attention or listening in. “If I tell you this, you have to swear not to say a word,” he told Lane definitely. “I’m serious, Lane, if this gets out I’ll know it was you and I will tell your mom about you being courted by the new lute player in town.”

“You wouldn’t!” Lane gasped, watching the expression on Jess’ face. “You would,” she realised aloud, “but you know I can keep a secret.”

“I know, that’s why I’m telling you this,” said Jess in a whisper. “Rory isn’t Taylor’s niece. She’s Princess Lorelai Leigh and... and I know because I met her at a ball a couple of nights ago. Lane, this is going to blow your mind, but I have a fairy godmother.”

With wide eyes, Lane listened to all Jess had to say as he explained about his transformation, the ball, Rory’s arrival, and his and Luke’s suspicions as to who she really was and where her mother was hiding. It was a full ten minutes before the tale was told, and Lane still had no words to speak. She was shocked, amazed, but there was one thing she knew for sure and found her voice enough to say.

“You love her,” she declared. “You do. You’re in love with the princess.”

“I’m not in love with her.” Jess rolled his eyes. “I don’t even know her, not really, I...” he faltered when the look on Lane’s face dared him to continue arguing the point. “I like her,” he admitted at last. “A lot. I don’t know if it’s love, Lane. How would I know? I’ve never been in love, and she sure as hell wouldn’t look at me twice, knowing what I am.”

“What you are is a great guy, Jess,” Lane assured him.

“Thanks,” he told her, “but that doesn’t change anything. A princess and a guy like me? That’s never going to happen.”

Lane opened her mouth to argue further, but Mrs Kim was just now calling her daughter’s name and that meant Jess needed to go before they were caught. He shot Lane a smile and then he was almost literally running home. Mrs Kim found her daughter stood alone, but grinning like an idiot.

“What has you so happy, young lady?” she asked suspiciously.

“The good works of the Lord, mama” said Lane truthfully. “It’s true what they said, he does work in mysterious ways, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, he does” agreed Mrs Kim, nodding her head. “Now let us get home. A dark street corner is no place for a young woman, you never know who you will meet.”

“Yes, mama,” agreed Lane, but her smile wouldn’t fade, not for a moment.

If such wonderful and exciting things could happen in Jess' life, maybe there was hope for her yet.


	7. Chapter 6

Lorelai tried not to spend too much time watching Rory through the enchanted looking glass, but lately it proved harder and harder to keep her gaze away. She had missed so much as her baby girl grew up. Now sixteen, she was becoming a young woman, and the world ought to hold so many wonderful things for a beautiful, intelligent princess like Rory.

If Old Woman Lott had her way then Rory was due to be as doomed as Lorelai herself, cursed in some awful way, condemned to a life of solitude and pain. She wanted to do something to help, Lorelai wished she could have been the mother Rory always deserved but she was powerless, or perhaps more accurately too powerful, for that to happen. Her curse made her dangerous, the marks on the walls, the broken furniture, and what happened when Luke was here, it was all proof of that. She couldn’t be allowed near people, especially not those she loved.

Lorelai looked away from the mirror and Rory’s picture faded away. At least she was smiling for now. Each time Lorelai looked in on her, Rory did seem happy and content. Most often there was a boy with her, someone Lorelai didn’t know but whose name was apparently Jess. She wondered if he was the nephew Luke had spoken of. The very thought of the cook made Lorelai smile in spite of herself.

He had been back to the castle, as he promised he would, but Lorelai never had opened the door again. Each time he visited, three times a day with her meals, Luke knocked on the door and begged for entry but Lorelai refused. At first she told him no out loud, but after it was easier to say nothing at all. Luke was just another piece of a world she could never be a part of. She would love to know him better, for more reasons than she could count, and more than one night since they met she had dreamt up scenarios of how he might be a part of her life and she a part of his. It was all childish nonsense, in spite of the fact a couple of those dreams she’d had were definitely not suitable for younger viewers. Lorelai’s life was set, she was to stay here for as long as her curse remained, which was likely forever. Even if she should be fortunate enough to be released from her fate sooner, she and Luke were of such different worlds, it could never work out.

Lorelai wondered about Rory and her friendship with Jess. That was all well and good for as long as she was hiding out in Stars Hollow, but when the danger was over, which Lorelai prayed it would be soon, Rory would go home, back to the castle and a royal life. She and Jess would be even further separated than Lorelai and Luke were in some ways, and it broke her heart to think of it. For now, she supposed it couldn’t matter. Let Rory have some happiness whilst she could, talking about books and music with a young man that seemed to want to do whatever it took to make her laugh and smile. Given what may be coming in the days or weeks that followed, Rory deserved to be able to grab some happiness. Lorelai wanted nothing more for her baby girl than freedom and happiness.

* * *

“So, this is Stars Hollow? It’s... small,” noted the nobleman as he peered out of the limousine window. “I’m sure the whole thing would fit in the grounds of your palace twice over, Logan.”

“I don’t doubt it, Finn, but I have a good enough reason for visiting this place,” said the prince, smiling widely. “This may be an insignificant little hole, but it’s the place that my princess is calling home for now, so it’s where I need to be.”

“Your princess?” said Sir Colin with a snort. “Somebody is getting a little ahead of themselves.

“Noble kinsmen, you doubt that I, Prince Logan of Huntzberger, can win the lady fair? Then you forget too quickly how much the princess clung to me on the night of her ball.”

“Too much good wine and not enough chance to circulate,” said Sir Finn, waving his hand dismissively. “If the poor girl had a half a chance to know me, then you would have seen her really fall.”

“In a dead faint at the shock of meeting such a drunken idiot!” said Sir Colin, laughing heartily. “Finn, you could barely stand when we arrived at the palace, and were practically carried out when we left!”

“Can I help it if I know how to enjoy myself?” he replied with shrug, caring not at all apparently.

Logan stopped listening. His eyes were fixed on the view as the car rolled on into town. It really was a small place, and already he detected an odour that came with the poor and unwashed, but this would be worth it. He had to find Princess Lorelai Leigh, and here was where she was rumoured to be. He forgot now where he heard such rumours, but he knew they must be true. This was where he must be, and the girl he nick-named Ace was who he must find.

“Marty!” he called to his man-servant who drove the limo. “Stop here!”

“Yes, sir,” replied Marty, pulling the car up in front of the grocery store.

Immediately he dived from the vehicle, running around to open the door for his prince and noble kinsmen. Prince Logan alighted without paying any attention to the servant. Sir Colin and Sir Finn did much the same. Instead they focused on their surroundings, and none were much impressed by what they saw, at least not at first.

“Well, this is as dire as I imagined,” said Sir Colin.

“Oh, I don’t know. Seems to be improving already,” replied Sir Finn, gesturing towards a pair of pretty girls that were walking by. “Logan, you no longer need us, do you?”

“Go,” said the prince, rolling his eyes. “I’m sure I can handle my mission alone.”

As his kinsmen ran after young women they could easily charm with their riches if nothing else, Logan turned his attention to the building before him. This was the mayor’s establishment, both his business and his home attached to it. It was here he would find the princess, his Ace. The prince gestured to Marty to knock on the door and announce his coming, and of course he immediately did as he was told.

“Find the princess, cast the spell,” whispered Logan, repeating words that echoed in his mind unbidden.

“Excuse me, sir?” said Marty with a frown. “Did you speak to me?”

“What? I didn’t say anything!” he snapped at his manservant. “Now do as I ordered!”

“Yes, sir.”

* * *

“You shouldn’t keep coming to visit me like this,” said Rory with a smile she could not help. “I really don’t want you to get in trouble with... with my uncle,” she told Jess.

“Some people are worth the risk,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Besides, part of working for Taylor is taking care of you. How do I know what you need if I don’t come see you and ask?”

“Good point.” Rory smiled wider. “Well, I read these books already.”

“All of them?” he checked with wide eyes. “You really do like to read.”

“No, I love to read,” she corrected. “And these were so interesting, like nothing else I ever read, especially this one,” she declared, holding one thinner volume aloft. “It’s so... different, and wonderful, and I can’t even begin to describe what it made me feel.”

Jess squirmed under her gaze, feeling foolish. He had added that book to the pile for reasons he couldn’t even begin to explain, but it seemed he might yet be required to.

“Jess?” she prompted when he tried to turn away, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I, er... You need more wood for your fire. I should go get some.”

He made to rush out of the door, but Rory moved faster. She put herself between him and the exit, and Jess sighed.

“Rory. I have things to do,” he reminded her. “Taylor is-”

“What’s wrong with you?” she asked, searching his face. “You love to talk about books, and you never care about getting out of here to go work until the Mayor calls for you. Why is today different? Is it this book that has you squirming?”

Jess looked down into those bright blue eyes of hers and knew it wasn’t just the book that made him feel this way. Some of it was just because Rory was who she was, not a princess, not a famous beauty, but her as a person, her heart and soul and every part of her which he had so easily fallen in love with, starting at the ball and now here in this room where they had spent time enough this past week.

“The book... It’s mine,” he explained awkwardly.

“Oh,” she replied in surprise. “I thought you bought them all at the store. If it’s yours, you should take it back,” she said, offering him the tome immediately.

“No.” Jess smiled. “I didn’t mean I own the book, I mean... I mean, I wrote the book.”

Rory’s eyes were wide as saucers as they moved from his face to the book in her hands and back. She had no idea that such a person could create something so beautiful and wonderful. Not that she was naive enough to believe that poor people were all unintelligent, but Jess was just a guy she knew, not a great author of books. Apparently that was at least partly untrue. He had written one book, the very one she held in her hands, and Rory was overwhelmed.

“Jess...” she began, shaking her head when no more words would come.

“It’s nothing really, and that’s the only copy you’ll ever see,” he explained. “Guys like me, we don’t get books published. That’s a copy my uncle had made for me. Paid the printer in the next town more than a few months’ pay to get it done, for my eighteenth birthday.”

“And you leant it to me? Your only copy of something so special?” asked Rory in genuine surprise.

Jess shrugged, suddenly very aware of how close she was, how easy it would be to take advantage of such a moment. He didn’t have words to say, but there were actions he could use to prove just exactly what he felt about Rory, why he so readily handed his most treasured possession to a veritable stranger. He could tell her how they met, but if he dared to kiss her first, she might understand better how he felt.

“Rory...” he said, voice not above a whisper as they seemed to drift closer together without even noticing it was happening.

A loud rapping on the door and the booming voice of Mayor Doose broke the moment too easily. Rory and Jess leapt apart like shrapnel, in spite of the fact they had done nothing, wrong or otherwise. The door swung open and in walked Taylor, a manservant scurrying behind him.

“Rory, my dear, you have a visitor,” said Taylor, grinning too wide.

“Presenting his Royal Highness, Prince Logan of Huntzberger,” announced Marty, bowing at the door.

Rory stared in amazement as Jess frowned hard. Logan came striding in, bowing to the princess who was supposed to be in hiding. So much for that secret it seemed.

“Princess Lorelai Leigh,” he greeted her, picking up her hand to kiss it. “Imagine my surprise when I heard you were hiding here,” he said then, looking up to meet her eyes and tipping her a wink.

“Logan, um... Nobody was supposed to know...” she stammered, pulling her hand from his grasp.

“C’mon, Ace,” he grinned. “Word gets around amongst our people. Besides, your grandmother, the Queen, was gracious enough to let me in on the secret.”

Taylor looked at Jess and realised that this secret had now been revealed to him too. He looked alarmed and immediately moved to usher the boy out.

“C’mon, boy!” he urged him. “You have no business here.”

“Yes, sir.” Jess sighed, allowing himself to be led away.

Still, he could not resist looking back at Rory at the last moment. She cast a smile his way but her attention soon returned to the prince. 

Logan was just the kind of guy it was hard not to pay attention too. Rory had liked him well enough at the ball when he had danced with her and spoken beautiful words. She was flattered by his attention and felt safe in his arms. Still, she was sure even as she stared up at him now that she could never really be in love with a guy like him. There was something false in his manners, in his smile. He liked her, she believed that, but he liked himself a little bit more. That didn’t mean she objected to his visiting or would shun his company. He was nice enough and certainly handsome. Apparently, he was kind of a snob too.

“It must be hard on you, being here, living like this,” he said, eyeing the room with distaste, “with only street rats for company” he added, looking back over his shoulder to the door through which Jess had just passed through.

“Jess isn’t... I mean, he’s a nice guy,” said Rory definitely. “He’s smart too. He actually-”

“So, this is Stars Hollow?” Logan interrupted without a care, moving to look out of the window. “I guess it could be worse. If you can find some fresh air it might be better. C’mon, we’ll go out,” he told Rory with a wide smile, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the door before she had any chance to protest.

“Logan!” she exclaimed, pulling away. “I’m in hiding for a reason,” she reminded him.

“We’ll be safe, I promise you,” he swore to her, only holding onto her hand tighter in both of his as he met her eyes. “Ace, you trust me, don’t you?” he said gently.

It was hard not to be stuck to the spot by those eyes, not to be charmed by such a man as Prince Logan. Rory started to forget why she was arguing.

“I... I guess I do,” she said, still wary of the offer he made her yet.

If Logan noticed, he showed no sign of it. “Then come on!”

Jess was unloading a delivery when he heard the door open and close, followed by familiar voices. He watched as Rory and Logan climbed into his car and headed out somewhere. Venting his anger the only way he could, Jess kicked angrily at a stone, setting it skimming across the ground. So much for any slim chance he might have had with Rory. Now the prince was here, Jess suspected his chances were all shot to hell. Still, something struck him as wrong about Prince Logan, and it wasn’t just because he was rich and thought a lot of himself.

Checking Taylor wasn’t paying attention, Jess set off in pursuit of the prince’s limousine, following it through the streets, taking short-cuts to ensure he kept up. Wherever the prince was taking Rory, Jess was going there too, just in case.


	8. Chapter 7

“This is nice,” said Rory with a smile.

“Yes, it is,” agreed Logan, looking more at her than the view that seemed to captivate the princess so much.

She blushed under his gaze and ducked her head, sure he had known she was speaking of the scenery and the oddly mild weather for the time of year. Perhaps Rory had been indoors too long, she had almost forgotten how nice it could be to sit out on the grass by a fast running stream, the feel of the sun on her face, and a friendly companion to talk to.

“I still don’t understand how you knew where to find me,” she said, glancing at Logan. “My grandparents were so determined that nobody could know where I was sent.”

“Well, I’m not just anybody,” said Logan, reaching out a hand to her cheek and encouraging her to look at him. “And I couldn’t go another day without seeing you.”

Rory swallowed hard. No man ever touched her like this before, never looked at her quite so intensely. She struggled to remember how to breathe as Logan went on.

“I want to protect you, Ace. I want you to trust me and allow me to... protect you.”

His words were barely a whisper that Rory felt against her lips as he pulled her closer. Her eyes fell shut, anticipating what came next, her very first kiss.

From his place in the nearby tree, Jess saw it all and felt his heart breaking at the sight of Rory in the prince’s arms. He ought to have known what he would see when spying on the two. They were both of royal blood and noble birth, practically made to be together, get married, and live happily ever after. Jess was ready to leap down from this tree to his death if necessary, just the moment he saw the kiss occurring. He changed his mind entirely when he noticed what happened next.

Rory wouldn’t be the first woman to swoon on being kissed, though Jess hadn’t really had her down as the type. The way she fell into such a dead faint was shocking, but stranger than that was the way the prince did the exact same thing in the opposite direction.

“Rory!” Jess yelled as he clambered down from the tree.

He realised the prince’s manservant had seen the same thing he had, coming running from the opposite direction and arriving at the scene at the very same moment Jess himself did. They went to the aid of the prince and princess respectively. Prince Logan came around almost immediately. Rory did not.

“Your highness, what happened?” asked Marty, helping Logan to his feet.

“What the hell did you do?!” Jess demanded, on his knees with Rory cradled in his arms, unconscious still.

“I don’t... Where am I?” asked Logan, turning this way and that before his eyes settled on the princess. “Ace?” he checked, one hand going to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to clear his eyes and mind. “I don’t understand.”

“Sir, you look unwell,” said Marty.

“He’s going to look a whole lot worse in about thirty seconds,” said Jess, carefully laying Rory down and getting to his feet. “What the hell did you do?!” he repeated, lunging at Logan.

“Nothing!” he snapped, pushing Jess off him. “I did nothing. I was in my castle and... and then I awoke here. What happened in between, I don’t know!” he repeated loudly.

Jess so wanted to knock this guy into next Thursday for whatever it was he had done, but somehow he knew the jerk was telling the truth. Something bigger than them was at play here. No woman went into such a deep sleep from one kiss unless magic was involved, unless a curse had been cast.

“The witch,” said Jess, turning to gaze down at Rory who slumbered still. “The curse. It’s why she was sent here, and you... You’re an idiot!” he told Logan, swinging at him wildly.

Logan staggered as soon as Jess’ fist connected with his face. Marty caught him, keeping him on his feet, but only just. In any other circumstance, Logan might have fought back, but not today, not like this. Perhaps on some level he deserved what had just happened. Certainly as the mist in his mind began to clear a little, he recalled a few things that made him wonder. A witch, that was what the street rat had said, and there had been a woman, old and soaked through from the rain, begging shelter in the castle. After that, everything was very hazy to Logan, except an overwhelming need to find the princess and kiss her.

“I... I did this,” he said in realisation. “Ace!”

Falling to his knees beside her still body, Jess was on her other side in a similar position by now. Rory was alive, but apparently unable to wake. This was the curse that the witch had wanted cast upon her, though how they could break it, nobody knew.

“You can probably undo it,” said Jess, without looking up from Rory’s face. “After all, these things are usually broken by... True Love’s Kiss.”

“A kiss caused this,” said Marty worriedly.

“That was when he was cursed,” said Jess, gesturing towards Logan and then actually meeting the prince’s eyes. “If you love her, you can break the curse the same way now.”

It was painful to admit it, and Logan wasn’t so stupid he couldn’t see the agony it gave Jess to say what he had. The very last thing this guy wanted was to give Logan the chance to kiss Rory again, but he was saying what he had to for the sake of saving her. Logan shook his head.

“It wouldn’t work,” he admitted. “You’re talking about the power of True Love’s Kiss, and I... I don’t love her that way. She’s beautiful and fun and... and I like her a lot,” he explained, gazing down fondly at Rory’s pretty face. “But it’s not true love. I’ve never felt that much for anybody, and if I can’t feel it for someone like her...”

His voice trailed away as he shook his head in the negative. Feeling unsteady still, Logan reached for Marty to help him back to his feet then turned his attention to Jess again.

“This is something you have to do,” he told him.

“I’m not a prince, not even close,” he said, shaking his head sadly.

“No, but you love her, with all of your heart. Any idiot can see that,” said the prince.

He turned away then, needing his manservant’s support as they moved towards the car to go.

Jess watched them leaving a moment and then gazed down at Rory. She was beyond beautiful, and he knew that to be true of her inside as well as outside. Of course he loved her, he had started falling the second they met and with each passing day of getting to know her, the love Jess felt had only grown. She couldn’t love him back, there was no way she could ever, and yet a tiny corner of Jess’ heart dared to dream.

“I guess we don’t have anything to lose, right?” he said to the unconscious Rory.

With the gentlest touch, he reached to push her hair back from her face, leaning over her body with the utmost care. Jess moved in closer and with his eyes as closed as hers, he allowed his lips to cover the princess’ own.

Though it felt like magic to Jess somehow, when he pulled away nothing had happened. It hadn’t worked and Rory was as deep in her cursed slumber now as she had been moments before.

The sound of the car engine roaring away caught Jess’ attention and he looked around to realise he and Rory were quite alone. It was a mile back to town and no way to get there but to walk. Jess wasted no time in picking Rory up from the ground. He cradled her carefully in his arms and began the long walk home. She was no burden to him. He would have carried her to the end of the world, if that was what it took.

* * *

A strange banging at the door got Luke’s attention. For a while he had been lost in silent revelry, thinking of nothing but Lorelai and how he might convince her to talk to him again. It had been days now, trying his best three times a day on delivery of her meals to entice her to open the door and meet with him. She refused every time, sometimes with words and other times with stony silence. It hurt more than a little, and every night Luke had dreamt of her beautiful face, and intoxicating voice, her sparkling eyes. It could never happen. A princess and a guy like him, they were doomed before they even begun, and that was before he considered her curse. There was no time to think of that now as the noise outside was accompanied by a familiar voice calling for help.

“Jess?” said Luke as he unbolted the door and flung it open fast. “What the hell...?”

“The witch that was after her was trickier than we thought,” said Jess, carrying Rory inside and over to his own bed.

He laid her down gently, covering her with the blanket. She was growing colder and he feared what that might mean. It killed him that he could be of so little use to her. If the kiss hadn’t worked, he just didn’t know what else to do.

“Jess, what exactly happened?” asked Luke from the other side of the bed.

His nephew shook his head, running a hand back through his hair.

“Prince Logan came to see her. He took her out somewhere and... and something wasn’t right. I followed them down to the river. Somebody had to keep her safe. He kissed her, and then they both passed out. He came around and didn’t seem to remember much of anything, but Rory won’t wake up. She can’t,” he explained.

Luke looked down at the young princess and frowned hard. This was what the King and Queen had been trying to avoid. They sent Rory here to keep her safe from the witch that had cursed her mother with icy rage, who had now apparently bewitched a prince so that he might place a sleeping curse upon the younger princess.

“I know it’s probably just an old myth,” he said absently, “but they say True Love’s Kiss...”

“I tried that,” Jess admitted. “And I know what you’re going to say, that I had no right-”

“You had every right and every reason, Jess,” Luke cut in, meeting his nephew’s eyes. “You love her with a true heart. If anybody stood a chance of waking her, it was you.”

“But it didn’t work,” said Jess sadly. “And now I don’t know what to do. Prince Jerk of Jerkdonia is gone, his people too from what I can tell.”

Luke rubbed the back of his neck and adjusted his hat for good measure. He didn’t know what to say or do. The princess’ family should be told what happened, her grandparents and her mother. Even Taylor had rights, he supposed, since he had been deemed Rory’s guardian for as long as she was here. Still, none of this would rouse the slumbering princess.

“Isn’t there somebody who knows about curses? I don’t know, like a white witch or something?” asked Jess desperately. “This town has every kind of whacked-out crazy, every kind of outcast...”

His words trailed away when he realised how his uncle was squirming. He knew something, something that might help, but he clearly didn’t want to say what it was.

“Luke, please!” Jess urged him. “Whatever it is, tell me. If it’ll help Rory-”

“There is someone you can ask, but... If I tell you this you have to swear to keep it to yourself,” he said, leaning in closer and speaking in a whisper to his nephew. “There is a woman in town who used to practice magic, the light kind at first but then the darkness started to take her, so she had to give it up altogether. Still, she might know how to break this kind of curse,” he explained, swallowing hard before he told Jess the biggest of all town secrets. “Go see Miss Babette. She’ll have your answer.”

* * *

“I don’t have your answer, sugar,” said Miss Babette regretfully.

She and Jess were sat across a table from each other, all curtains tightly drawn and shutters bolted fast. Nobody was allowed to know of Miss Babette’s past. A very few had a clue of the magicks she once wielded and she needed to keep it that way, but Jess had been let in on her secret and she had to be let in on his too.

Miss Babette seemed unsurprised to hear that Rory was in fact the princess, and even less shocked to know a dark presence had been in town, casting this kind of curse. Unfortunately, she seemed unable or unwilling to help Jess find a cure.

“You have to know something!” he said desperately, slamming his hand against the table top. “Miss Babette, please. I can’t... I can’t lose her. I know I’m not worthy. True Love’s Kiss didn’t work because as much as I care for her, the princess could never... That doesn’t matter now,” he said, waving it all away with his hand. “I need to help her. Even if I’m saving her for some other guy to walk in and sweep her off her feet, I don’t care. I have to help her.”

Miss Babette smiled a slow smile, reaching out one hand to take hold of Jess’ chin.

“You’re a good boy,” she said softly. “Don’t you ever listen to all those things the folks in town say, sugar, because I know you got a heart of gold in there, okay? And it’s that heart that’ll serve you well in your quest.”

“Quest?” he echoed, startled by the word and the way Miss Babette was suddenly scrambling up from her chair and away from him.

She returned a moment later with a hefty volume that she slammed down onto the table. Dust flew up from the cover as she threw it open, and then beneath the first few pages, a hole in the rest of the tome was revealed. Jess felt the need to balk at the idea of desecrating any book in such a way, but honestly, now didn’t seem like the time.

“Here it is,” said Miss Babette, pulling a metal object on a chain from the void in the book and blowing more dust from its surface. “You’ll be needing this,” she said, handing the most beautiful compass to Jess. “It’s a guide and a talisman all in one. Put it around your neck and it’ll lead you there and keep you safe. Well, it’ll help to keep you safe.”

She looked oddly nervous and that made Jess feel much the same as he looked up from the compass to see Miss Babette shuffling from one foot to the other.

“Where am I going?” he checked.

“A place nobody has set foot in a lot of years, sugar,” she told him in a low voice. “You’re gonna have to go to the Dark Castle. The home of The Beast!”


	9. Chapter 8

Thankfully, when Jess brought Rory back to town, unconscious and cursed, Luke had taken charge of the situation. He promised to watch over the princess whilst Jess himself headed out to see Miss Babette and do whatever needed to be done to save Rory. He also contacted Taylor to let him know what happened, and asked the mayor to let the royals know what had occurred if he felt it necessary. Honestly, Luke and Jess were both in two minds over whether or not the king and queen needed to know the truth yet. There was nothing they could do to help, and it might just be that if Jess was successful in his quest, Rory could be saved and returned to them at the royal castle no longer in fear of her life.

The quest, that was the only thing on Jess’ mind right now, save for the girl he was completing it for. He had to be crazy, trekking all the way to the Dark Castle armed with nothing but a supposedly charmed compass and his good looks. Somehow he doubted either was going to help him much when it came to actually facing whatever beast lie beyond the doors of the building.

Getting there was assisted in part by the compass, helping him pick out the safest route up the mountain. The castle itself was plain enough to see, large and imposing, as dark as its name suggested. Nobody usually ventured so far into the woods between Stars Hollow and New Haven that they so much as caught sight of the old place. Given its reputation, nobody would ever want to.

There were a lot of stories about The Beast. Some said the creature didn’t even exist and was only a myth and a ghost story to scare children and folks gathered around camp fires. Others had theories about it being a dragon or a manticore, some vicious creature willing to tear a man limb from limb if he dared approach its home. Then there was the story that The Beast was no beast a at all, but a person, maybe a wizard or a witch that had been consumed by evil magic. Jess supposed he was going to find out the truth before too long. He had to hope that whatever or whoever lie beyond the castle gates was willing to tell him their secrets or reveal the answer to his problem somehow.

“Gonna be tough to make conversation with a dragon,” he mused as he trekked uphill another half a mile, “or a ghost.”

There was every chance that on reaching the castle, Jess would find nothing and nobody there. That would mean a wasted trip, which was bad enough, but also the last chance he had of helping Rory being gone. That he couldn’t stand.

Jess really wasn’t sure how he came to fall in love so fast. He had started to believe he was destined never to love anyone in that way, but one look at Rory and something in his heart gave way. Since the night of the ball, he had known she was special, and not because she was a princess. Actually, Jess would say he loved her in spite of her royal status. She was so much more than a title and a beautiful face and figure. He loved her mind, her spirit, her soul. They were two halves of the same thing in a way that Jess never imagined could happen outside of books, but that was him and Rory, and he only wished one day she might feel the same.

If she couldn’t, it didn’t matter. He would go on loving her, and never be sorry for helping to save her from this curse and returning her to happiness. Jess was sure that if he could make Rory happy, he would feel happier himself. It didn’t matter if she left the moment the curse was broken and he never saw her again. Actually, it did matter, and he hated the thought of that happening. The point was, he loved her enough to let her go if he must, just so long as she was safe and well again.

A sound in the distance made Jess jump, almost losing his footing on the rocky path. An eagle screamed overhead and then disappeared up into the clouds. Taking a deep breath, he refocused on where he was headed and what he was doing. Now wasn’t the time for his mind to start wandering. He had a task to do, a quest to complete, and it needed all his concentration. Rory needed him, and he would never let her down.

* * *

A knock on the door startled Luke from deep thought. He had been pacing the room more often than he had been seated, going back and forth in his mind over what to do for the best about Rory. He swore to watch over her whilst Jess was gone on his quest to the Dark Castle, and he had given all the information they had so far to Mayor Doose so he could decide what plan of action to take where the Royals were concerned. Luke wasn’t sure if Rory’s grandparents had yet been informed of her sleep-cursed state, but he was thinking a lot about telling her mother.

Moving to the door, Luke was wary of opening it in the current circumstances. His hand hesitated on the doorknob and then he frowned.

“Who is it?” he asked.

“It’s Lane,” said a small voice. “I heard what happened, I... I wanted to help.”

With a sigh of relief, Luke opened up the door and let Lane inside. They shared an awkward smile given the circumstances, and then her eyes went to the princess. Hurrying past Luke to get a better look at Rory. They had met once, very briefly, but Lane had felt the need to keep her eyes down then. Now Rory was unconscious, she got a proper look at her.

“She really is as beautiful as you would expect, for a princess, I mean,” she said in wonder.

“She is. She looks like her mother,” said Luke without thinking, catching Lane’s attention in a second. “I, er... How much did Jess tell you?” he checked, one hand rubbing the back of his neck.

“A lot,” she admitted. “About the fairy godmother and the ball, how he met Rory, and that she doesn’t know he’s the same guy she met then,” she rattled out. “The curse I heard about in town. It’s all anybody’s talking about. I can’t think where the rumours started but I’d guess Miss Tilly had something to do with it.”

“Sounds likely,” said Luke, rolling his eyes. “No disrespect, but I’m surprised your mother let you come over here, what with the curse and all. She seems the type to think this kind of thing might be contagious.”

“She probably would.” Lane sighed. “I told her I was going to pray, which she never objects to. It wasn’t a lie, I do intend to pray for Rory, and for Jess,” she admitted, frowning hard then. “Is it true he’s gone on a quest to the Dark Castle?”

Luke nodded solemnly.

It didn’t thrill him to know his nephew might be putting himself in harm’s way, but he couldn’t ask him not to do this. Feint heart never won fair lady, that was how the saying went, and Jess definitely wasn’t feint of heart. He loved Rory, that much was clear, and would do whatever was necessary to save her from this wicked witch’s curse. Luke only hoped it didn’t cost Jess everything in the process.

* * *

The Dark Castle looked even bigger, darker, and creepier up close than it did at any kind of distance. Jess swallowed hard as he looked up at the doors, reaching twice as high as his head. Strong as he might be for a young man of his height and stature, he doubted he could push even one of the heavy wood and iron doors aside if they were unlocked, and he doubted it would even be that easy.

“Open sesame?” he said doubtfully, smirking to himself when nothing happened. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.”

Raising a fist to knock seemed equally as dumb, but Jess tried it anyway, since he couldn’t think of any other way to gain entrance. He rapped as loudly as he could against the too thick wood and waited. After barely five seconds had passed there was a terrible creaking sound and the door began to open. Jess took a step back, one hand going absently to the compass talisman around his neck, the other pulled back ready to strike should an attack follow. When the door finally made it all the way open, there was actually nobody there, just dark space.

“Hello?” he called, not entirely surprised when no answer came.

Moving inside seemed like the only thing to do, even if Jess was entirely wary of what waited for him beyond the doors. It was a relief to find nothing and nobody waiting on the other side, and yet at the same time, Jess was disappointed. If this really was an empty castle, then his quest was all in vain.

Jess looked to the left and right, approached the staircase but then changed his mind. He could hear something, almost see it to. Maybe just a shadow moving but it was enough to get his attention. Turning towards the direction of the shift, Jess kept one arm raised in battle-ready stance, his other hand clasped tight around the compass talisman still as he approached the doorway of a dilapidated room and crept inside.

There was nothing there either, at least nothing Jess could see. It felt different though, as if there was a presence. Jess shivered involuntarily as he looked around the room.

Something stirred in the fireplace, so slight that Jess almost didn’t notice it in the dim light. Focusing his eyes on the spot, he took a couple of tentative steps forward, only to be almost blinded and blown off his feet at the same time as the flames burst forth, lighting up the whole room in orange light.

“Geez!” Jess winced, shielding his eyes with his arm as he regained his footing. “What the hell is this?!”

“This is what you came looking for, boy!” boomed a voice, that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once.

Jess’ focus was drawn to the fire that seemed to flicker and flash with each word spoken, as if the flames themselves were talking to him. He wouldn’t exactly categorise a fireplace as a beast, but certainly there had to be some magic at play here. Keeping his cool as best he could, Jess pressed forward with what he came here for.

“I came looking for answers!” he explained loudly, though no volume he could find within him would ever compete with the booming of the voice that replied.

“You can have only one answer from me, and even that comes at a price!” he was told in no uncertain terms. “Choose your question carefully.”

Jess considered the wording of what he must ask so he wouldn’t get tripped up. If this disembodied, but oddly feminine voice was serious about the one answer only deal, and he doubted that this beast thing was big on bluffing, he couldn’t screw it up. For Rory’s sake, he just couldn’t.

“Okay, I have my one question,” he said, trying to keep the shake out of his voice, after all, this was a pretty unnerving situation. “A girl I care about is in trouble. A witch cast a spell on a prince so when he kissed her, she fell into some kind of sleeping curse. My question is, what is the cure to the sleeping curse?”

At first he was going to ask how he could break the curse himself, but Jess was wary of being so specific. It might be that somebody else needed to do something, maybe Prince Logan or the witch who cast the curse. He was confident he had chosen the right wording when he spoke it. The echoing laughter of the disembodied voice shook that confidence considerably.

“Curses can be tricky, but witches and their sleeping spells are simple enough.”

Jess waited for the simple answer he was apparently supposed to be getting, but it never came. The voice was too quiet, too long and he soon grew impatient.

“So?” he prompted. “If it’s so simple, give me the answer!” he yelled at the ceiling, though he wasn’t sure that was the correct direction.

“Simple it may be, but it also comes at a price!” the voice boomed once more, the fire flaring wildly in the grate. “You are here to save a girl, your true love,” she said definitely, though Jess knew he had never stated as much, true as it was. “I require proof of your love and devotion. If you really want your answer... prove you are worthy.”

Jess was about to ask how he was supposed to do that, when suddenly the answer became all too clear. The darkness of the room was broken by more than the fire then, two lines of light seeming to appear on the floor as if from nowhere. They made a path that cut across the darkness, from his own feet to the fireplace. The flames were higher than ever, crackling as if possessed by something truly evil. Swallowing hard, he realised just exactly what this beast of a voice wanted him to do.

“Are you crazy?” he asked, more seriously than he meant to.

“You only get one question,” she replied, with a hint of laughter that made Jess’ blood run cold. “And you didn’t answer mine yet. Are you worthy?”

“Yes,” he said immediately, pulling the zipper on his jacket higher, throwing an arm across his face for protection, and running full-pelt into the fire.


	10. Chapter 9

Luke and Lane jumped simultaneously when the door flung open to reveal Jess, visibly bruised and burnt. He limped into the house and Luke rushed to his nephew's aid, helping him to a chair.

“I’m okay,” said Jess, sounding anything but. “Or I will be,” he winced some as he dropped down into the seat.

“What happened?” asked Lane worriedly, fingers reaching out towards the burnt edges of her friend’s jacket and the scratches on his face. “Was it the Beast?”

“Yes and no,” said Jess with a smile that neither Luke nor Lane expected, giving himself a moment to get his breath after the struggle to get home. “I twisted my ankle coming back from the castle, and most of the scratches are from the thorns in the forest,” he explained. “The burns I can blame on the Beast, but, honestly? She's not so bad when you get to know her.”

“She?” echoed Lane with wide eyes.

“The Beast is a woman?” asked Luke, feeling overwhelmed by all of this.

Jess leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes a moment. His head hurt, his legs ached, there really wasn’t a part of him that felt good, but he had completed his quest. He knew how to save Rory now, and everything was going to be alright. He could afford to take a few moments to tell Luke and Lane about his adventure.

“The Dark Castle is a pretty eerie place,” he began to explain, watching both his uncle and friend pull up chairs to sit by him and hear all. “At first, I was just talking to this voice, with no idea where it was coming from, and then after I proved myself, she revealed herself. She knows all about curses, because she’s under one. This so-called Beast, she... well, she has her reasons for hiding. For things she did wrong, she was punished, cursed to stay in the dark of the castle. Daylight would kill her in a second, so she lives alone in a windowless room in the centre of the castle. Kinda sad actually. She’s not so scary. She looks like a woman, she is a woman. In fact she used to be a lady of the court years ago. Her name's Paris.”

“That’s pretty,” said Lane. “But she must’ve done something awful to be cursed that way.”

“You think so?” asked Jess, his eyes drifting to Rory’s slumbering form on his own bed.

Immediately, Lane knew she had said the wrong thing. Jess knew she just hadn’t thought it through before she spoke, and he didn’t mind. It made sense to think that those plagued by evil curses probably deserved their fate, but that wasn’t always true.

Levering himself up from the chair, Jess stumbled towards the bed, dropping awkwardly to his knees by Rory. He reached to gently take her hand in both of his and stared up at her beautiful face, angelic in slumber still.

“I know how to fix this,” he said, perhaps pointlessly to her or maybe deliberately because he knew Luke and Lane were listening anyway. “I had the right idea, I just got the wrong person. All curses can be broken. It just takes an act of True Love.”

“I hate to bring this up,” said Luke, raising his hand as he approached and got in Jess’ line of sight. “But you already tried True Love’s Kiss. It didn’t work.”

“Like I said, wrong person.”

“But Prince Logan is long gone,” said Lane worriedly.

Jess shook his head. “Not him either. Not all love is romantic,” he added, looking up pointedly at Luke.

It took all of two seconds for his uncle to realise what he meant. 

“Lorelai,” he said, a statement not a question because he was so sure he was right.

“It's the only way to save her” Jess confirmed anyway. "Rory needs her mother, now more than ever. She needs to know she loves her.”

Luke was staring at the opposite wall though seemingly not seeing anything. His hand went to his forehead as he thought for a moment and then suddenly swung into action.

“I can handle this,” he said, rushing to grab his jacket. “Leave this to me!”

“No!” Jess yelled, trying desperately to get up off his knees and finding it awkward at first until Lane assisted. “Uncle Luke, no. If we go, we go together. Please!” he urged him when it seemed Luke might argue the point.

“I can stay with the princess,” Lane quickly offered.

Luke knew there was no argument he could make. If someone was here to watch over Rory, there was no reason for Jess not to come with him to see Lorelai, except for his obvious injuries. Still, when Luke looked down into his nephew’s face he knew there would be nothing he could say to change his mind. Jess wanted, no, he needed to fight for his true love. Luke understood that feeling, and he wouldn’t try to stop him, not for a second.

* * *

Nobody had ever known such a storm as this and Lorelai was sure they never would again. Her end would come in this turmoil, she was sure. Seeing her daughter sleeping too deeply, she hardly knew what had happened at first. The moment she heard the word ‘curse’ being used, then she understood. The rage and pain boiled up inside her, and yet it was not the fiery tumult it seemed when it bubbled in her chest. From her hands flew the usual frosty torrent. By now the walls, floor and ceiling were thick with ice, the door sealed fast by the same. Around about the castle, thunder cracked and lightening lanced the sky. Lorelai’s torment could not end for as long as her daughter was suffering and her rage brought on the fiercest blizzard the land of Connecticut had ever known.

Through this, two men battled. Lorelai had no idea of their coming. She knew nothing but her own pain and agony. For all that she had tried to do to keep Rory safe from herself, she had been unable to protect her from Old Woman Lott. Clearly the witch had discovered the younger princess and cursed her in some new and inventive way. Rory was in slumber and could not be woken, it seemed. Lorelai’s pain was absolute and unending, or so she believed.

Outside the walls that hid her, the princess was oblivious of the people trying to reach her. Luke led the way he knew so well, though the path was that much harder with the storm trying to batter him back at every turn. Jess followed behind, suffering already after his quest to the Dark Castle, but determined to make it all the same. Luke had to help him several times already, and the ice storm was only growing worse with every step.

“She must know what happened to Rory!” yelled Luke over the howling wind. “This is her anger and pain!”

“Remind me never to get cursed!” said Jess as loud as he could.

It was definitely a bad time for a joke, but right now there was little else he could think to say. Even getting to the castle was proving to be a battle. If Lorelai was as stubborn as Jess supposed her to be, they were going to have a fight on their hands convincing her to come to Rory’s aid. It probably wasn’t even safe to bring her to town in this state. They would have to calm her down first. Jess had all the faith in the world when it came to his uncle, but this was a big ask for anybody.

It was both a blessing and a curse when they finally reached the door of the castle. Forcing their way inside did not come easy and even once they reached what ought to be shelter, the ice remained and the wind blew on.

“This is insane!” Jess yelled, wincing against the onslaught of magic-born weather.

“There’s a part of all this that isn’t?” questioned Luke, pushing on towards the stairs. “Come on, this way!”

They fought their way up the steps to Lorelai’s own door. Beyond it, even over the swirling sounds of the storm, they could hear her crying. It broke Luke’s heart to know she was suffering so much, but he could only help if she let him inside.

“Lorelai!” he yelled, beating hard on the door. “Lorelai, it’s Luke! Please, let me in!”

“Luke?” she called, sounding so very broken. “It’s too late!”

“It’s not!” he insisted. “Lorelai, we can help you, and Rory. Please, it’s not too late!”

Jess stood by the door, his back braced against the wall. He never felt so tired or so cold. His head was pounding, his ankle throbbing. If he could give in now, he would, but that wasn’t an option. Rory needed him. Luke needed him. Nothing was over yet, and could only end well if he kept on going.

The wind dropped noticeably and suddenly. The ice and snow that had been blowing before his eyes too long began to fade to nothing. Jess watched the scene around him become more calm and then looked to his uncle, as if to check he wasn’t imagining it.

Luke nodded his head and smiled slightly. Lorelai was calming down, even if only just a little. It bothered him that the door still wouldn’t open, but he was pleased to know he was helping at least a little bit.

“Lorelai?” he tried again.

“The door won’t open,” she told him sadly. “I can’t.”

“Move out of the way,” said Luke definitely, gesturing to Jess to come help him.

Digging deep for any inner strength he could find, Jess stepped up alongside his uncle. On an unspoken count of three they both charged at the door shoulders-first. It gave way with an almighty crush, the two men tumbling inside the room.

Lorelai gasped at the sight, pleased to see Luke but clearly concerned by the sight of Jess who crumpled to the floor at her feet, coughing and spluttering. Luke immediately went to his aid, checking he was okay.

“I’m fine,” he lied, pulling himself up into the nearby chair. “I’ll be fine,” he promised. “We’re here for Rory, she’s the most important person,” he said definitely, though his eyes soon became distracted by the ice-caked room in which he sat.

The shiver might have been brought on by the cold or by the finger of fear that ran down his spine. This was even more eerie than the Dark Castle in some ways. All this cold and ice caused by the woman stood by him, who looked so much like an older version of Rory, like she ought to be so sweet and kind. She was dangerous, no doubt, though Luke insisted she didn’t mean to be.

“Lorelai, we came to take you to Stars Hollow,” said Luke, reaching for her hand without thinking. “Rory needs you. You’re the only on who can save her.”

“No,” she replied, shaking her head as she snatched her fingers from his grasp. “You know I can’t. Look what I’ve done already! Think about what I did before, to you. I can’t help her.”

“You can!” said Jess too loudly. “You’re the only one that can. An act of True Love can save her. You’re her mother, nobody can love her more than you do!”

Lorelai met his eyes and knew he spoke the truth. She opened her mouth to protest, though no words came. He was probably right, but fear made her want to argue. Staying here, she couldn’t hurt anyone, that had always been the plan. Now it seemed keeping away from Rory was going to cause her worse harm. Her eyes drifted to the magic mirror on the table. Through it she had seen Rory have so many happy times, and lately she had seen her suffer. They couldn’t go on like this, they just couldn’t.

“I don’t know if I can,” she said, turning to look with fear evident in her eyes. “I want to, Luke. I love her so much, all I want is for her to be happy, but for sixteen years I’ve done nothing but fail her. Even before she was born... I failed her from the start!”

“You didn’t fail her!” he insisted, grabbing her by the shoulders, propriety be damned. “You’ve both suffered so much, but we can change that. Me and Jess, we don’t have much, but anything we can do for you and for Rory, we’ll do it. You’re not alone in this, if you come with us now, you'll never have to be alone again.”

Lorelai could hardly stand the way he spoke to her, the way he met her eyes and held her gaze. He meant every word and she didn’t doubt it for a second. She could love a man like Luke Danes, Lorelai knew that much, though it did her little good to realise it. If what he said was true, if he would stand by her, if he and his nephew could care this much about her and Rory both, maybe there was hope. It was something Lorelai had hardly allowed herself to have these past sixteen years and more.

“You’re not afraid?” she checked.

“Of you? Never!” Luke insisted, shaking his head. “So, what do you say? Will you come with us?”

Lorelai looked from him to Jess and back again. They were serious, more than serious. There was only one answer she could give.

“Yes,” she agreed at last. “Take me to my baby girl, Luke. Please.”


	11. Chapter 10

Lorelai was shaking all the way into Stars Hollow, so much so that she was sure the car was being moved by her nervous motion more than anything else.

Luke had known there were servants at the castle, though perhaps no more than two or three. He provided all Lorelai’s meals, but somebody had to be there to clean, keep the fires burning, and ensure the princess’ health and well-being. There was a car kept in the grounds, used by the meagre staff to fetch any supplies required. This was what was transporting Lorelai to town, with Luke driving and Jess half asleep in the back seat next to the princess. Luke was grateful for the transport, both for its speed and the fact it meant Jess didn’t have to walk anymore. The poor kid was beat and understandably so.

“You must love her a lot,” said Lorelai, looking to Jess. “I’ve seen you two talking, in the mirror,” she gestured back the way they had come, the castle that had been her home and her prison too long. “You... You must love my Rory.”

“Yeah,” Jess agreed, nodding his head. “But that doesn’t matter. What she needs right now is her mother, and her home. She has a life and... and I can’t be a part of that.”

Lorelai winced at his tone, but didn’t argue. Her eyes drifted to Luke in the driver’s seat and her heart ached. Her focus right now should be Rory, and it was, but she couldn’t help but wonder what came after. Once Rory was saved, which she prayed to God she could be, then what happened? Lorelai couldn’t imagine resuming life at the Royal Castle, but leaving Rory would not be an option once they met again.

Whilst the sleeping curse might be lifted from the young princess, the older one knew her own curse would remain. She was still dangerous, still volatile. Her hands folded in her lap grew colder as fear froze in her heart. Lorelai fought to think of other things, to keep control, but it didn’t come easy. All that could calm her was recalling the moment Luke had taken hold of her in her prison-like room at the castle, assuring her he would stand by her and help her in any possible way. What she had seen in his eyes then had warmed something in her very core, and Lorelai could not properly explain how it happened. She only knew that holding onto that feeling allowed her just a little control over her cursed ice powers, and she needed that right now.

The car arrived in Stars Hollow a few moments later. Luke had insisted on not driving like a mad man, even in these circumstances. There was no use in getting there fast if they all crashed and died on arrival. Jess had only rolled his eyes and allowed himself to doze off in the back seat for a little bit. He was sure he wouldn’t need a sleeping curse in order to slumber for a hundred years. When the last of the adrenaline wore off, he was bound to sleep for at least that long.

The moment the wheels stopped turning, Lorelai dove from the car. Luke was barely a step behind her and Jess brought up the rear.

Crashing into the house, they startled poor Lane who was shocked by the speed with which her friends had returned, and completely over-awed by the sight of what could only be the lost Princess Lorelai.

“Your majesty!” she gasped, falling to her knees.

Lorelai barely noticed, rushing instead to her daughter’s bedside. She too fell to the floor on her knees, crying like her heart would break as she grabbed up Rory’s hand in both of hers.

“My baby!” she cried. “Oh, Rory. Sweetheart, Mommy’s here. Mommy loves you and she’s missed you so much!” she sobbed into the bed.

Luke and Jess helped Lane to her feet and then could only stand and watch as mother and daughter were reunited, though Rory knew nothing of the moment yet.

Swallowing down far too much emotion, Lorelai leaned over Rory’s slumbering form, gently moving stray hairs away from her eyes.

“Time to wake up, sweetheart,” she said softly, placing her lips softly against Rory’s forehead in the tenderest of motherly kisses.

The moment of affection was all that it took. The ripples of magical power were practically visible to those that stood watching, emanating out from the two princesses like shockwaves through the air. Suddenly, the world shifted and Rory’s body shifted on the bed, her eyes flickering open at last.

“Mom?” she gasped, staring up into blue eyes so like her own.

“Yes, baby,” said Lorelai, tears streaking down her cheeks as she laughed and cried at the same time. “Mommy’s here.”

“Oh, Mom!” Rory gasped, reaching to grab at her mother and hug her tightly.

Lane covered her mouth with her hand as tears of happiness filled her eyes. She felt Jess’ arm around her shoulders and leaned into his friendly hug. He and Luke were visibly moved when she looked at them. It was quite the moment, in which love had conquered all it seemed, or almost all.

“I should go,” Lane whispered. “I... I need to see Mama.”

Jess nodded that he well understood her feelings and thanked her for her help as she rushed away. His eyes went back to Rory and Lorelai then. They were so happy to finally meet each other properly, but they had a lot to talk about. It suddenly felt as if Jess and Luke were intruding, and they looked to each other with the same idea. They ought to leave. The moment they turned for the door, Lorelai called for them to stop.

“Don’t go!” she urged them. “We have to thank you.”

“Yes, you saved me,” Rory realised aloud. "Even though I was asleep, couldn't talk or move, I heard everything. I don’t think I know exactly what happened, but...”

It was as far as she managed to get before a loud rumble cut off any further words. All four of them present knew something was wrong, as the unearthly sound grew louder. With a great flash of light that threatened to blind them all, a figure appeared in the doorway. Luke and Jess backed up towards the bed, almost crashing into Rory and Lorelai in the confusion. Shielding their eyes, all four soon realised who the dark figure was inside of the lightning strike that had landed before them.

“Lott!” Lorelai gasped, stepping up in front of the others. “You’re not doing any more harm here!” she said definitely.

“Really?” the witch cackled. “You think you alone can stand up against me, girl?”

“Woman!” Lorelai corrected her. “And I’m not alone anymore.”

Luke felt a warmth in his heart when she spoke those words. Of course, Lorelai was probably speaking of herself and Rory being reunited, but these were words he had spoken first. He promised Lorelai she would not be alone because he would be here. Jess was determined to play his part too, and between the four of them they had to be strong enough to end this witch’s reign once and for all.

“You don’t scare us!” said Rory, shaking nevertheless as she stood up from the bed and took her place beside her mother, clasping their hands together even when Lorelai tried to shy away. “We’re stronger than you!”

“Yes, they are,” Luke agreed, moving to Lorelai’s other side and placing a comforting hand on her back. “You’re not hurting anybody else here.”

“Agreed,” said Jess, stepping up next to Rory, smiling in spite of himself when he felt her free hand slip into his own.

“Fools!” cried Old Woman Lott, shooting out her arms towards them.

Lorelai immediately countered, flinging her free hand out fast. Ice flew from her fingertips, a blizzard like shower that seemed to engulf the witch without a moment’s pause. Old Woman Lott screamed as she was whipped up in the icy cloud, smothered by its overwhelming power. When at last her noise ceased and Lorelai allowed her arm to fall limp at her side, the sight that met their eyes was astonishing. Old Woman Lott was stood frozen in place, her whole form encased in ice as if she were a glass statue.

“Oh, Mom!” Rory gasped. “Is she...? Did you...?”

“Doesn’t matter,” said Jess definitely. “She can’t hurt anybody else. That’s what counts.”

“Listen to the boy, because he speaks the truth,” said a new voice in the room.

All eyes turned towards a sparkling presence that seemed to materialise from nothing. Jess was the only one who knew better and didn’t look all that surprised. Mistress Patty stood before them now, obscuring their view of the witch with her glittering finery and wide smile.

“Your witch isn’t dead, darlings,” she explained. “But she cannot hurt you anymore. In this form, she will only suffer, seeing the world go on happily without her influence. You have done so well, honey,” she told Lorelai then. “I knew you could, with the right help.”

Her smiled was warm and genuine as she looked at each of the four people stood before her then. This was the plan, intended from the beginning, and now everything would work out just fine.

“What do we do with her?” asked Luke, looking past the fairy godmother to the frozen witch.

“I’ll take care of her. A friend of mine could use something ornamental for the lawn,” she considered, her smile turning almost wicked. “And Jess, honey, don’t give up,” Mistress Patty urged him at the last. “There’s always a plan, and there’s always hope.”

With that she waved her magic wand and both her and the frozen Old Woman Lott were gone. The room looked almost normal, save for the fact two princesses were stood in it, between two lowly men who had saved their lives today.

There was fully five minutes when no-one spoke at all. None knew where to begin after everything that had happened. Then eventually, Lorelai and Rory fell into each other’s arms, practically hugging the life out of each other. Just when Luke was about to suggest again that he and Jess should leave, Lorelai turned to grab at his arm.

“Thank you,” she said in earnest. “Thank you so much for everything, Luke. You don’t know what you did. I never thought... I never thought anyone could care about me like that. I sure as hell never thought I could control this curse, but... but knowing you trusted me, that you were there no matter what...”

“I am here, Lorelai. Whenever you need me,” he promised, meeting her gaze. “Not that I expect a princess to need me.”

“I did, I do,” she insisted. “God, Luke, you... you brought me back to my daughter. You helped me find a strength in myself that I couldn’t find alone. I can’t ever thank you enough for that.”

“You just did,” Luke assured her, amazed when she flung herself into his arms to hug him close.

Rory’s hands covered her face as tears of happiness filled her eyes. This was all so amazing, she could barely take it in. When she remembered that Jess was there beside her, she turned to face him, smiling through her tears.

“I should thank you too,” she told him genuinely. “Jess, what you must have been through. I can't believe you would do that for me.”

“It was nothing,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and wincing at the pain it caused. “I’d do it all again - the quest, the castle, the beast, the ice storm - every part of it, for you.”

Rory could hardly believe the way he listed off such terrible trials with ease and spoke genuinely of going through all of that a second time just for her. It made her heart ache.

“You’re the best friend I ever had, Jess,” she told him, taking his hands in her own. “I... I do love you,” she promised, sure he had to feel so very much for her to say what he had, to do what he had done. “But my heart was taken before I ever met you-”

“By Prince Logan,” he interrupted, eyes going to the floor.

“No,” Rory insisted, getting Jess’ attention back in a second. “No, I never loved Logan. He was a nice guy, but I never felt anything for him. There was a guy, I don’t really know who he was but I met him at a ball. He had a mask, and I never asked his name, but he... I don’t know, he talked to me about books, he wrote in my favourite, all these thoughts about the text, the author's ideas, everything I thought myself when I read it. It’s crazy, I know, but I fell in love with him, through one conversation and through those words he wrote.”

Rory didn’t understand when she suddenly realised Jess was laughing. It didn’t make sense unless he had been driven mad by her confession or was simply delirious after all he had been through today. When he began to walk away from her, Rory didn’t know what to think, and then suddenly he had returned, with a book of his own in his hands.

“Here,” he said, showing it to her. “Open it. Look at the notes in the margins.”

Rory was frowning as she did what he asked, fingers running over the penmanship she recognised instantly. It took a moment for the light to dawn in her mind, and then suddenly she knew.

“You?” she gasped, meeting his eyes.

“Me,” Jess confirmed, nodding his head. “Mistress Patty, she pulled some major mojo the night of your ball, sent me there like some kind of prince or whatever,” he explained. “I met you and I knew, from the first second I saw you, that we were meant to be together. I thought you knew it too, but then it turned out you were a princess and I'm... I'm nothing compared to that. The next thing I know you’re in town and the mayor is calling you his niece. I knew something was going on, but I didn’t know how to tell you that I knew who you were or how I’d met you...”

It was as far as he got in his explanation. Rory couldn’t stand to hear any more. Here was the man that had haunted her thoughts, both asleep and awake, since what she perceived to be their one and only meeting at her coming out ball. She loved him, Rory loved Jess, and suddenly everything made sense. She couldn’t bear to stand there hearing his explanation when all she wanted was to be in his arms. Crashing her lips to his own, Rory was thrilled to feel his arms slide around her body as he kissed her with all the passion he possessed. The kiss she barely recalled with Logan was nothing by comparison, not even the brief moment when Jess himself had kissed her before was as good. This was True Love’s Kiss.

“This might just be a perfect moment,” said Lorelai, watching her daughter and Jess together.

“I wish it were.” Luke sighed next to her. “How can this work?” he asked Lorelai softly, when she looked his way. “She’s a princess. You’re both princesses, and me and Jess, we’re-”

“You’re princes, in all the ways that matter,” she assured him with a serious look. “Luke, I know this is crazy, I know we barely even know each other, but I know what I feel. Luke Danes, will you marry me?”

His eyes went comically wide at the question, and yet the answer was as clear to Luke as anything ever could be. Looking down into Lorelai’s ice blue eyes he saw nothing but warmth in them, nothing but the love he felt reflected back.

“Yes, Lorelai,” he promised her. “Yes, I'll marry you. I love you.”

“I love you too,” she confirmed, falling into his arms as they too shared a kiss.

Now, it was a perfect moment.


	12. Epilogue

In her private bed chamber, the princess smiled. It had become the usual state of Princess Lorelai Leigh, to feel happiness and joy, but today it was most especially true. Such days were usually called a happy event, and the young princess knew she enough reasons to smile.

“Rory?” said her mother from the door.

She gave no answer, just continued to stare into the glass, amazed by the sight that met her eyes. Lorelai came to stand by her side, looping their arms as she took in the very same view.

“Oh, honey,” she gasped. “Rory, you look beautiful. Y’know, I think back to the day you were born, and as sad as I was knowing I was going to have to let you go, I was so happy just to meet you. You were amazing and beautiful then, and you still are, babe.”

“Thank you, Mom,” said Rory, smiling widely through a veil of happy tears.

So long they had been without each other, and though Lorelai had feared Rory’s reaction when they were reunited, she needn’t have worried. When she explained all, her daughter forgave her. She vowed to waste no time on anger and regret. They were together now, the danger they had feared was now past, and they had arrived in such a happy situation. Today was the greatest of days.

“Lorelai?” said a voice at the door and both princesses turned to see Luke stood there. “Wow”! he gasped at the sight of them both.

“Six months married and I can still make him look like that,” said Lorelai to Rory with a grin. “Things are all good, kid.”

“You can say that again,” Rory agreed. “I hope I’m so lucky.”

“Are you kidding?” her mother openly laughed. “Jess is so in love with you. I never saw two people as much in love as you two.”

“Except maybe me and your mother,” Luke added with a smile he could not help.

Rory looked between them and thought back over the past year. So much had happened, she hardly knew where to begin. She had her mother in her life now, and as they got to know each other, they found they had so very much in common. Luke had become Rory’s step-father, accepted into the royal family with more ease than had been expected. The queen had been resistant about what she called 'the peasants' entering her house, but Luke and Jess were all Lorelai and Rory could ever want, other than each other. The elder princess was already married, and the younger would join the ranks of wedded bliss today when she and Jess pledged their love before family and friends.

As the bells chimed in the clock tower signalling the hour, Rory looked to her mother.

“Time to go,” she said at last, watching twin smiles appear on Lorelai and Luke’s faces that only matched her own. “I can’t believe this day is finally here. There’s no way I deserve all this happiness.”

“Don’t be dumb!” Lorelai mock-scolded, yet her grin remained. “I know this wasn’t the plan. Certainly your grandparents would have preferred you were marrying a prince or a duke or whatever, but in the end, they just want to see you happy, like I do. Jess may not be of rank and fortune, but he has a good heart. I truly believe no other man in the world could love you as much as he does, and if you feel the same...”

“You know I do,” said Rory definitely.

“Well then, you two will be just fine. I should know,” she said, glancing at Luke, who ducked his head, feeling embarrassed to be looked at in such a way in front of his step-daughter.

The three of them walked down the stairs then, Luke escorting his two favourite women in the world. They were met by the king and queen, both in their regal finery.

“Mom, Dad,” Lorelai greeted them, each getting a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you so much for allowing this. I know you could have pushed for the whole royal wedding thing, but Rory wanted it this way.”

“She is your daughter, Lorelai,” said Richard, eyes following her gaze to the beautiful bride that was his granddaughter. “You know what is best for her, you always did.”

“For all that has happened, we couldn’t be prouder of either of you if we tried,” added Emily, a smile on her lips and tears in her eyes.

It took a lot for her to say something like that, Lorelai and Rory both knew it. The queen had not taken it well when both princesses declared their love for peasant men, but in the end, when the whole story was told, she could really be nothing but grateful to Luke and Jess for returning both her girls to her, and helping to rid their lives of an evil witch once and for all. There was no way to deny the girls what Emily and Richard had not denied themselves - a marriage of True Love.

Everyone moved to their places then, and the musicians were given their cue. On her grandfather’s arm, Rory glided outside, across the street, and down the make-shift aisle that cut across Stars Hollow town square, towards her husband-to-be. Jess looked every inch a prince in that moment, despite his lowly birth, but then he had always looked that way to Rory. She could never love anyone more.

“You look amazing,” he told her in a whisper as they met in the gazebo. “Beyond beautiful.”

“You don’t look so bad yourself,” she told him with a giggle. “We’re going to be so happy, Jess,” she promised him.

“I know,” he agreed just as the music ended and the ceremony proper began.

It ought to be scary, standing up in front of all these people and declaring his love for a woman, but Jess was surprisingly fine with it. The truth was, he saw no-one but Rory right now, and he knew they were doing the right thing here. She made him happy, completing his life in a way he never thought possible. Some men would be intimidated, marrying a princess and all, but Jess didn’t worry about it. Besides, he wouldn’t have to feel inferior to his wife or her family. He may never be a royal by birth, but he was earning his own fame and fortune of late.

A man Jess had met at the ball, the same ball at which he had met Rory, called him up not so long ago. He barely recalled the guy named The Honourable Sir Matthew who he had briefly spoken to about writing and publishing. Having now read Jess’ one and only novel to date, Sir Matthew and his associate Sir Christopher had vowed to publish the manuscript and make Jess a small fortune. He didn’t know about the money so much, but Jess didn’t mind. He had Rory, and whether they ended up living in a castle or a hovel, he really wouldn’t care, so long as they were together.

Their vows duly made, Rory and Jess gave and received rings, and then at last the reverend announced that they were man and wife.

“You may kiss he bride” he declared, something Jess wasted no time in doing, and Rory couldn’t mind at all.

They were lost in the moment, accompanied by applause from a large crowd of family, friends, and subjects, and only parted when they felt the strange sensation of cold wet flakes fluttering down around their heads.

“Mom!” Rory exclaimed as she realised the snow was falling only over them.

“Hey, it’s less clean up than rice,” Lorelai grinned, letting the flurries continue as she leaned into Luke’s embrace and accepted the kiss he planted on her cheek. “They’re going to be so happy” she said of Jess and Rory.

“Yes they are, and so are we,” her husband promised. “I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but I think there’s a good chance we’re all going to live happily ever after.”

And do you know what? They all did.


End file.
